I planted bomb in Sarojini Nagar: IM operative to NIA

NEW DELHI: Alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Ariz Khan, alias Junaid, has told federal counter-terror investigators that his outfit was behind the 2005 serial blasts in Delhi on the eve of Diwali and it was he who planted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at Sarojini Nagar market, according to a government official familiar with the development.

The revelation raises fresh doubts on the investigation carried out by the city police, which has said a Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) squad was behind the explosions.

On October 29, 2005, at 5.35pm, the first of the Delhi serial blasts at Tooti Chowk in Paharganj killed 17 people and injured 108 others. The second blast took place 25 minutes later in the busy Sarojini Nagar market in which 50 people died and 104 were injured. The third blast took place at Okhla, injuring 13.

“Junaid has told National Investigation Agency ( NIA) interrogators that he, along with another alleged IM operative Mirza Shadab Beg, had kept the IED at Sarojini Nagar market while Atif Ameen, who was killed in the Batla House encounter in September 2008, had kept an IED in Paharganj. A third IED, in a DTC bus, was kept by two other alleged IM operatives — Mohammad Shakeel and Saquib Nisar,” said a home ministry official on condition of anonymity.

The official added that Junaid further told interrogators that the IEDS were prepared by another alleged IM member, Sadiq Israr Sheikh, at a rented flat in south Delhi’s Jasola and has given a detailed account of how he kept the IED at Sarojini Nagar market along with Shadab Beg.