On the run for 29 yrs, 4 wished for serial blasts held in Gujarat

Express News Service

AHMEDABAD:  Nearly three a long time after the Bombay serial bomb blasts, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested 4 individuals from Sardarnagar in Ahmedabad for his or her alleged involvement in certainly one of India’s worst terror assaults.

An ATS officer mentioned the 4 — Abu Bakar, Saiyyad Qureshi, Yusuf Bhatka, and Shoib Qureshi — had been detained initially and later booked for possessing solid passports. They had been later despatched to eight-day police custody by a courtroom. 

“Abu Bakar was using the identity of Javed Basha from Karnataka while Saiyyad Qureshi had taken the alias of Saiyyad Sharif from Chennai. Shoib Qureshi and Yusuf Bhatka posed as Saiyyad Yasin from Karnataka and Yusuf Ismail from Mumbai. After their real identity was revealed, we found that they were involved in the 1993 serial bomb blasts,” ATS Deputy Superintendent Kanu Ok Patel mentioned.

Over 250 folks had been killed and one other 700 had been injured within the sequence of coordinated blasts that had shaken India’s monetary capital on March 12, 1993. The 4 had travelled to Pakistan for weapons coaching and had left India after the phobia assault, Patel mentioned. 

“They earlier worked in the gang of Mumbai-based smuggler Mohammad Dossa from 1980 to 1990. Later, they got in touch with Dawood Ibrahim. In February 1993, they travelled to the Middle East and met Dawood,’’ he said. ‘‘On Dawood’s instruction, they reached Pakistan illegally to get trained on handling weapons and improvised explosives with the help of Pakistan spy agency ISI.” 

After the serial blasts, Abu Bakar was chargeable for disposing of a consignment of weapons that had arrived by way of sea route in Maharashtra. “The four accused then forged documents to make passports and went to Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia and Oman. They recently returned to India and had come to Ahmedabad,” Patel mentioned.

ATS officers mentioned that the 4 accused can be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the high-profile case after their remand interval will get over.