New Delhi, Feb. 15: The Delhi police special cell suspects that the explosives used to carry out the Pune blast were transported from Karnataka, where a terror module of the Indian Mujahideen is active.
A Delhi police special cell team is expected to arrive in Bengaluru on Tuesday to carry out further investigations. The Karnataka module is believed to have also provided explosives for the 2008 Delhi serial blasts. The police is also exploring the option of taking Shahzaad, a Delhi blast accused, to Bengaluru shortly. Shahzaad, a member of the IM’s Delhi module, was arrested last month by the UP Anti-Terror Squad and is in the custody of the special cell.
The Delhi police also suspects that the material used for the blast could be a cocktail of RDX and ammonium nitrate. "This might have been shipped from Karnataka to Pune for carrying out the blast," a special cell officer told this newspaper. The "K-module", Delhi police and intelligence sources claimed, was also involved in the synchronised bombing in Bengaluru on July 25, 2008.
Sources disclosed that the explosives for the Delhi blasts had been handed to one Atif Ameen, the IM Delhi module leader, by one Shah Rukh, believed to be the head of the Karnataka IM module. Atif was killed in the 2008 Batla House police encounter. The police feels "Shah Rukh could also be the man behind the supplying of material for the Pune blast." It was pointed out that following the interrogation of arrested IM operatives Muhammad Shakeel, Muhammad Saif and Zia-ur-Rehman in connection with the 2008 Delhi serial blasts, it was revealed that IM modules were operating in almost all Indian metropolises. Shahzaad reportedly told investigators that Atif had been in touch with IM members operating in Karnataka.
Jehangir Ali