| Golkhadi |
Posted
on 29-Aug-03 06:20 PM
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2003 11:10:17 PM ]
MUMBAI: The RDX explosive used in Mondays twin blasts here was smuggled into India from Nepal, according to intelligence bureau (IB) officials. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan allegedly used one of its agents to smuggle in the explosives from Nepal to Bihar a month ago. The police suspect a huge quantity of RDX was brought in, of which five kg was used in the blasts at Mumbadevi and Gateway of India.
A police team from Mumbai has already reached Bihar to search for a man who is believed to have received the RDX consignment and brought it to Mumbai by road. This suspect is part of the group that executed the blasts, the officials said. He, along with a couple and a child, were travelling in the taxi which exploded at the Gateway of India, a senior officer said.
The debriefing of the taxi driver, Shiv Narayan Pandey, revealed the suspects conversed in fluent Urdu. The three didnt know the citys roads and were seeing the tourist spots for the first time, Pandey reportedly told the investigating team. The police suspect the three are from outside Mumbai. A team has also been sent to Gujarat, where a fourth accomplice, believed to have taken part in the explosion at Mumbadevi, is suspected to be hiding, these officials claimed. No arrests have been made so far. Senior police officers are tightlipped. Apparently, senior IB officers, who have some vital clues, have asked the Mumbai crime branch to refrain from giving speculative stories to the media.
More than 20 persons have been detained for interrogation in Mumbai, Thane and Pune. Joint police commissioner (crime) Satyapal Singh, who will head the anti-terrorist squad, said, Even if we have the ATS, it can never be fool-proof. Terrorism is a global phenomenon, with money being sponsored from one country, the conspiracy hatched in another, training provided to terrorists in a third country and blast executed in a fourth. Unless there is proper co-ordination and exchange of information between countries and several investigative agencies, we simply cannot counter the threats posed by terrorists and miscreants.
He stated that the Lashkar-e-Taiba had a unit in Saudi Arabia that funded terrorist operations in Mumbai. Some of the suspects hiding in Saudi Arabia include Tahir Ali alias Janab and C A M Bashir, both aides of Dr Jalees Ansari who is in an Ajmer jail. We are on high alert, especially during the Ganesh festival, Singh said. We have held meetings with the Ganesh mandals and other citizens groups, seeking their co-operation in keeping tabs on abandoned bags.
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