Gujarat ATS arrests four men wanted in 1993 Bombay serial blasts case
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 May, 2022 10:20 AM
Ahmedabad, May 17 (IANS) The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in the Bombay serial bomb blasts, which killed 257 persons and injured over 700 others on March 12, 1993.
Based on a specific information about the presence of four suspicious persons in Ahmedabad, a team was formed under Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kanubhai Patel, which detained the four persons from the Sardarnagar area on the evening of May 12.
Initially, the four accused were booked for carrying forged Indian passports.
The arrested persons had Indian passports with the following names -- Javed Basha alias Qasim Saab, Syed Abbas Sharif alias Syed Abbas, Syed Yasin alias Abdul Rahman, and Mohammad Yusuf Ismail alias Sheikh Ismail Noor Mohammad. They had obtained these persons using fake address documents.
As per the ATS, after their real identities were revealed, the police found that the four accused were allegedly involved in the 1993 serial bomb blasts.
The real identities of the accused persons were found to be Abu Bakar alias Abdul Gafoor (Javed Basha); Syed Qureshi alias Rahat Jan Qureshi (Syed Abbas Sharif); Mohammad Shoaib Qureshi alias Shoaib Bawa (Syed Yasin); and Mohammad Yusuf Ismail alias Yusuf Bhatka (Mohammad Yusuf Ismail).
Sources said that all the four persons were wanted for their alleged involvement in the 1993 serial blasts, and were on the run to this day.
They were all members of a smuggling gang run by Mohammad Ahmed Dosa alias Mohammad Dosa, and were involved in the smuggling of gold and silver in India in the 1980s and 1990s.
The accused had gone to the Middle East in February 1993, a month before the blasts, and attended a meeting organised by Dawood Ibrahim, in which the latter instructed them to go to Pakistan for arms training.
Abu Bakr, Syed Qureshi, Mohammad Shoaib and Mohammad Yusuf had then gone to Pakistan, where they were trained in manufacturing of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), after which they returned to India.
Abu Bakr also played a role in disposing of another consignment of weapons that had arrived in Maharashtra by sea, just days after the serial blasts.
In the aftermath of the blasts, these individuals used fake address documents to fraudulently obtain Indian passports with different names and identities and fled India.
All four of them were declared guilty by the special TADA court in Mumbai, while the Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice in their name.
As per sources, ATS officials will hand over the four accused to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the Mumbai serial blasts case, after their remand period is over.
Delhi Police on Wednesday busted a smuggling racket of imported cigarettes and recovered 3,650 packets of illegally smuggled cigarettes, valued at approximately Rs 7.3 lakhs. According to the police, a man, identified as Aamir Laeeq, 30, was arrested in this connection.
Security guards in all the banks in J&K are provided with point 12 bore shotguns and not rifles. While bullets are used in rifles, the ammunition of a shotgun is made of cartridges.
The haul is valued at nearly Rs 8 lakh. The smuggler Abdul Baki Malitha (40) and the silver pellets have been handed over to the Customs department at Jalangi, Murshidabad, for further processing.
The sources also said that they have identified around 22 mobile numbers of PFI student wing members who were present in the area before the violence erupted. They said that the probe agencies have been trying to ascertain their activities and they may be questioned by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police.
The packet had come through the cargo to Sirajudeen on April 17, and on Monday a person named Naukul had come to take it. The officials used a gas cutter to open the meat slicer and recovered 2.26 kg of gold stacked inside the machine.
Terming the development as a black day in the history of Punjab, Badal said never before in the history of the state had outsiders been given control of the state and its future generations in this manner.
