Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 17, 2008
The 10 arrests in the Ahmedabad terror strike
case on Saturday could help crack four other blast cases where similar modus
operandi was used to set off bombs in public places to create maximum impact.
Police teams of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan,
UP, MP and Delhi, apart from Intelligence Bureau sleuths, had camped in Ahmedabad
soon after the July 26 serial explosions to find leads in their respective
blast cases. SIMI general secretary Safdar Nagori is lodged in an MP jail
after his arrest in March this year. JCP (crime) Ashish Bhatia said: "We
have got leads into the serial blasts in Jaipur, Faizabad, Hyderabad's Mecca
Masjid, Bangalore and the Andhra capital's Lumbini Garden and Gokul Chaat.
But a lot of work needs to be done to develop the leads.'' The forensic tests
on the bombs of Surat had shown parallels with Bangalore's and those with
Ahmedabad were similar to Jaipur's. Cycles were also used in Ahmedabad, Jaipur
and Faizabad blasts, the only difference being the Jaipur cycles were bought
while the ones in the Gujarat city were hired.
"Mufti Abdul Bashar, one of the masterminds,
had been to Hyderabad before the city witnessed serial blasts. The Mufti was
in Ahmedabad, too, right before the blasts took place,'' said Bhatia. His
boss, Gujarat DGP P C Pande, also spoke of the "indications" that
those arrested by his boys could be linked to the serial bombings in Jaipur
and, earlier, Hyderabad and in the courts of Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad.
"It was this same group which had plotted and executed serial blasts
in Jaipur, Faizabad, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The group had first met in forests
near Ernakulam in 2006 and imparted commando training to SIMI activists from
Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka.
