Seven months after a bomb ripped through the popular German Bakery, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad says it has finally cracked the case. The major breakthrough came in the form of the arrest of the Maharashtra chief of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, who is accused of being the kingpin in the Pune blast. Another accused was arrested from Nashik while two others are still at large.
On February 13 this year a bomb went off at the bakery in Pune’s upmarket Koregaon Park area at 6.15 pm, killing 17 and injuring 56. “On Tuesday, at 3.15 pm, we arrested Mirza Himayat Baig, 29, from the Mahatma Gandhi bus stand in Pune. Baig had been on the run since the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case. He was a member of the Faiyaz Kagzi and Zaibuddin Ansari modules that were involved in the Aurangabad case,” said ATS chief Rakesh Maria.
Baig, who holds a diploma in education and worked in a library in Pune, met Indian Mujahideen operative Akbar Chaudhary who introduced him to Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, the co-founders of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). “Baig hid in Iqbal’s house in Bhatkal. Baig is a big catch for us as he brought together the members of the Kagzi and Ansari modules and merged them with the IM. Presently they are spread over all of Maharashtra and are large in numbers,” Mr Maria said.
Another LeT operative, Sheikh Lal Baba Mohammed Hussain Fareed, alias Bilal, 27, originally from Solapur and a student and friend of Baig, was arrested from a slum in Subhash Chandra Bose Marg in Ashok Nagar, Nashik, at 8.45 pm on Tuesday. “Bilal had gone to Pakistan from January 2008 till early this year for extensive training by the LeT. He had come to India twice from Bangladesh and once from Nepal through the porous border during this period,” said Mr Maria. Bilal studied at Kuchan High School in his hometown. His family members say Bilal left his house in 2005 claiming that he was going to Dubai as a wireman. The absconding accused are Yasin Bhatkal, the planter, and Mohsin Chaudhary.
ATS officers seized two kg of RDX, soldering wires and cutters, LeT literature, bomb-making manuals, `10,500 and $1200 cash, several SIM cards procured under fake names and a pen drive from them. “The conspiracy was hatched in an Internet cafe run by Baig in Latur called Global Internet Cafe. The bomb was planted by Baig and Yasin. Yasin was captured on CCTV camera footage at the bakery,” said Mr Maria.
While Baig has been arrested in the blast case, Bilal has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for reconnoitring government locations to carry out terror activities. The Pune court remanded the two men to police custody till September 20.
David Headley, during his interrogation by the FBI, had said he had reconnoitred several places in Pune. However, the ATS has so far not found any links between the arrested accused and Headley. When asked how the ATS pinned down the accused, Mr Maria said, “We have cracked it with pure human intelligence. We had prepared a list of over a dozen persons who could probably be behind the blast and our men have been following their movements very closely.”
Meanwhile, Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil announced a Rs 5 lakh cash award to the ATS team.
The family of Sheikh Lal Baba Mohammed Hussain Fareed, alias Bilal, was shattered by the news of his arrest, which spread in his hometown of Hotgi, Solapur. “Hang my son if he has worked against the nation. I have served the police force and my seniors had immense faith in me. Now my son has done such an act for which I can never forgive him,” said his father, Hussain Peersahab Shaikh, who retired as an assistant sub-inspector from the Railway Protection Force in 2004. Bilal has one brother, Sameer, and two sisters.
“My son has gone mad. He has betrayed his own mother,” said his mother Naseemabanu Shaikh, tears rolling down her cheek.
His elder bother Sameer said, “The charges levelled against him should be verified. He will not indulge in such acts and might have been indoctrinated by anti-social elements.”
Mirza Himayat Baig’s brother, Tareq Baig, said, “He left our house in Beed three years ago and came to meet us once before the start of the Ramzan month. We had no idea about where he was and what was he doing.” Mirza is a resident of Kumwada area in Beed and was arrested in Nashik. Mirza’s father and brother run a small hotel in Beed.