Posted on 05/06/2003 11:08:02 PM PDT by miltonim
Six Mumbai bomb suspects arrested
The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police arrested six men from the outlawed Students and Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who were allegedly behind the Ghatkopar and Mulund bomb blasts. Police also seized arms and lethal chemicals from their possession.
The arrested men, including four who are in police custody, are all well educated, most of them graduates and one of them a MBA, said Chhagan Bhujbal, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
The police also unearthed CDs with provocative speeches inciting Muslim youth to take vengeance for the killings of Muslims in Gujarat in the communal riots that followed the Godhra train carnage in which 59 Hindus were burnt to death.
The arrested men, who were nabbed about 10 days back, had links to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and were planning to carry out attacks in the same manner as in Gujarat's Akshardham temple.
Bhujbal said the police had clear evidence of the militants' plans to attack Mantralaya, Maharashtra's government headquarters and crowded places as the Chowpatty beach in Girgaum, Gateway of India, a tourist spot, railway and bus stations.
The arms seizure yielded two AK-56 assault rifles, two pistols, 85 cartridges, two hand grenades, chemical pipe bombs and bottles containing sulphuric and nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, a kilo of potassium cyanide worth Rs200,000.
Bhujbal said, "A mixture of potassium cyanide and nitric acid could set off fumes which if inhaled could cause death. These were to be used in crowded places."
Police Commissioner R.S. Sharma did not specify from where the men were arrested but only stated that they were picked up from the outskirts of Mumbai.
He also said police have unearthed "the complete module under which these blasts were to be carried out with the police coming across terrorist training camps on two remote hill tops, about three hours drive from the city".
He said around 15 men were being trained and police plan to arrest a few more persons involved in the conspiracy. Having gone to the root of the Mulund blast case, police feel that the arrests and arms seizures will be a set back for the Pakistan-based Lashkar.
"The main conspirator in the Mulund bomb blast is Abdul Hamid Nachan, a commerce graduate, who was earlier arrested in Ahmedabad under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, for possession of arms and convicted to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years," said Bhujbal.
Nachan was released in April 2001 and surrendered on April 10 before the Mumbai High Court after police sent out search parties in the village of Borivli in Padgah near Bhiwandi where he lived.
He surrendered soon after police killed three suspected militants – two Pakistanis and a Kashmiri – in an encounter. Nachan is now booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The conspirators arrested include Atif Nasir Mulla, an arts graduate and also a MBA, who received Pakistani militant Faizal Khan, later killed in the encounter; Zuber Mulla, who arranged training in AK-47 rifles, Ghulam Akbar Sattar, Mohammed Khamil Mohammed Jamil Sheikh and Farhan Abdul Malik Koth all of who received weapons and bomb making.
SIMI is the result of a direct attempt by the ISI to bring terror to India, outside of Kashmir. Planting bombs on commuter buses, trains etc are their hallmark. Though banned by the Govt. it still exists.
Tactics used and perfected by these thugs will soon find their way westwards. They should be stopped now.
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