Abu Bashir brain behind Surat bombs also: Police
The mastermind behind the Ahmedabad serial blasts and the attempted Surat blasts is Simi leader Abu Bashir, now in the custody of the Gujarat Police.
By ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: The mastermind behind the Ahmedabad serial blasts and the attempted Surat blasts is Simi leader Abu Bashir, now in the custody of the Gujarat Police.
Bashir was the brain not only behind the 17 blasts across Ahmedabad on July 26, but had also plotted the planting of 25-odd bombs in various places in Surat. The bombs in Surat could not go off either due to faulty integrated circuit chips or because of inadequate power supply.
The Surat bomb recovery case has been cracked with the arrest of Tanvir Pathan and Zahir Patel, both residents of Surat and Simi cadres, who confessed to having planted the bombs across the south Gujarat city, state DGP P C Pande told a news conference on Wednesday in Surat.
���We now have evidence to link the two conspiracies (Ahmedabad and Surat),��� he said. Tanvir and Zahir were closely linked to Sajid Mansuri who had provided the logistics and is a key accused in the Ahmedabad blasts case. Abu Bashir, Sajid Mansuri, Yunus Mansuri and Samsuddin Sheikh ��� all arrested earlier for the Ahmedabad blasts ��� were directly involved in planting of the bombs in Surat, the DGP claimed.
The police had recovered over 25 live bombs and two cars laden with explosives from Surat in raids mounted across the state in the wake of the Ahmedabad serial blasts. The bombs, said to have been planted on the night of July 24-25, were recovered from the densely populated Varaccha locality, where a majority of the diamond cutting and polishing units are situated. Some of the bombs were found flung on trees and hoardings.
Though none of the bombs exploded, their discovery created panic among people and commercial activities, especially in Varachha, came to a standstill for over four days. Mr Pande on Wednesday confirmed that the live bombs recovered from Surat were of high intensity and could have created havoc had they exploded. ���Two to four more suspects are yet to be caught and they would reveal more about the timers used,��� he said.
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Forensic Science Laboratory director Jayant Vyas explained why the Surat bombs did not go off: The circuits and chips used in them had faulty connections, he said, adding that the terrorists made a small error in power supply of transistors. Unlike Ahmedabad, these detonators failed to explode as the power output needed to trigger the detonator was not generated sufficiently, Mr Vyas said.
The blasts in Ahmedabad had claimed 56 lives. The Ahmedabad police claimed to have ���nearly solved��� the terror conspiracy with the arrest of Abu Bashar from Lucknow, saying the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was behind it.
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