29 years on, Gujarat ATS arrest 4 males wished in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case

By PTI

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested 4 individuals wished within the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, officers mentioned on Tuesday. Abu Bakar, Saiyad Qureshi, Mohammad Shoeb Qureshi alias Shoeb Bawa and Mohammad Yusuf Ismail alias Yusuf Bhatka, all residents of Mumbai, have been on the run for 29 years, they mentioned.

Addl DGP (ATS) Amit Vishwakarma mentioned that the 4 have been held from Sardarnagar space of Ahmedabad on May 12 following a tip-off.

At current they’ve been booked for allegedly acquiring passports on the idea of solid paperwork for fleeing the nation in 1993, and later they might be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) within the blasts case, mentioned one other official.

“To hide their real identities, they had obtained passports using forged documents. Interpol had issued a Red-Corner Notice against them on the request of the CBI which is probing the blasts case,” Vishwakarma advised reporters.

It was not clear why they have been visiting Gujarat, he mentioned, including that they have been arrested underneath IPC sections 466 (forgery of document), 468 (forgery for dishonest) and 120-B(legal conspiracy) apart from underneath The Passports Act.

DIG (ATS) Deepan Bhadran mentioned  that within the Nineteen Nineties, these 4 used to work for gold smuggler Mohammed Dossa, a henchman of fugitive gangster and the blasts’ mastermind Dawood Ibrahim. “To spread terror in India, Dossa sent them to a country in the Middle East to meet Dawood in February 1993. On Dawood’s directions, they went to Pakistan to get weapons training. Pakistan’s (spy agency) ISI also gave them training in the making and use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs),” he mentioned.

All 4 have been a part of the conspiracy hatched by Dawood and others to hold out blasts in Mumbai, the DIG added.

After the serial blasts, they obtained passports utilizing solid paperwork and fled to totally different middle-eastern nations, mentioned Bhadran, including that the particular Terrorist and Destructive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court docket, which tried the blasts case, declared them “proclaimed offenders”.

“It is a matter of investigation when they came back to India and what they were doing in Gujarat. Upon completion of their ATS remand in the forgery case, we will hand them over to the CBI in the blasts case,” Bhadran mentioned.

Abu Bakar was additionally concerned within the dumping of a consignment of weapons into the ocean after the blasts, he mentioned. At least 257 individuals have been killed and over 700 injured within the coordinated bombing that ripped by way of Mumbai on March 12, 1993.

While the particular TADA court docket in Mumbai convicted 100 of the accused, primary conspirators Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon stay absconding.