Central intelligence and security agencies have initiated a probe into Wednesday’s blast outside
the Delhi high court by launching an 'unprecedented' hunt to track the top 10 operatives of the Indian
Mujahideen.
Highly placed sources in the National Investigation Agency claimed there was a strong possibility that some of these missing IM fugitives could be linked to the Wednesday bombing. Five people have so far been detained in connection with the blast: four in Kishtwar in Jammu and one in Balrampur, UP.
Meanwhile, the blast toll has gone up to 13, with two more people succumbing to injuries on Thursday.
The IM men on the run are Ariz, alias Junaid, Bada Sajid, Mirza Shadab Baig, Mohammed Khalid, Dr Shahnawaz, Amanullah Akhtar, Riaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, Amir Raza Khan and Shahrukh alias Yasin. Some of these names had also cropped up during the Mumbai serial blasts in July.
Secretary (internal security) U.K. Bansal on Thursday said that the May 25 Delhi high court blast case is also being handed over to NIA.
Teams of ATS from neighbouring states — UP, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan — have been called in for discussions and consultations with the NIA and the Delhi police. At a high-level meeting in the home ministry, the total strength of the crime branch and the special cell of the Delhi police was reviewed and suggestions were made to double their manpower.
Sources confessed that there is an urgent need to strengthen both the crime branch and the special cell.
Sleuths from the NIA and IB are busy sifting through data of phone calls and email records which are on the “suspect list” maintained by intelligence agencies. In addition, call data records from the entire NCR area are being scanned.
The NIA on Thursday also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone giving information on the blast. Even as the mail sent out on Wednesday where HuJI claimed responsibility for the blast was tracked to a cyber café in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir, another mail, this time purportedly by IM, surfaced.
Four persons have been detained for questioning in connection with the Kishtwar mail — the owners of the cyber café, Mehmood Aziz Khwaja and Khalid Khwaja, an employee, Ashwini Kumar, and a local resident. The four disclosed that a boy had come to the cyber café around the time the mail was generated. A hunt is on to track him.