NIA to probe all 3 terror cases of 2010

NEW DELHI: The government has decided to hand over to the National Investigation Agency ( NIA) all three terror cases of 2010 - the February blasts at Pune's German Bakery, the Jama Masjid shootout in September and the Varanasi blast of December.

Sources in the government said it may take a month or two for NIA to take over the probe into the aforesaid attacks, suspected to be the handiwork of elements linked to Indian Mujahideen and LeT.

There is no clarity on the identity or terrorist affiliation of bikers behind the Jama Masjid shootout, which had injured two Taiwanese tourists days before the CWG. The investigations have indicated the hand of IM-LeT in the attacks at German Bakery in Pune and the more recent blast at the Sheetla Ghat in Varanasi.

The February 13 blast at the German Bakery, near the Osho Ashram which was among the potential targets surveyed by American terror operative David Coleman Headley, had left 17 persons, including four foreign nationals, dead. The Maharashtra ATS, which is probing the case, have linked the Pune attack to IM leader Yasin Bhatkal and local operative Mohsin Chawdhary.

The Varanasi blasts were the latest attacks to have struck the hinterland. A blast, said to have been caused by explosives packed in a container, killed a two-year-old girl and injured 25 others. The explosion was timed just around the time of the evening 'aarti' to ensure maximum casualties. An e-mail received by media houses soon after the blasts in the name of an outfit called Al-Fateh, yet another IM front, had claimed the blast was to avenge the demolition of the Babri monument.