IM operative
Junaid’s lawyer, however, denied the involvement of his client in any blast. “There is no Indian Mujahideen and my client was not at involved with any outfit by the name of Indian Mujahideen or in any blast,” said advocate MS Khan.
Junaid,32, was arrested by Delhi Police in February this year from the Indo-nepal border after being on the run for nearly a decade. In April, NIA interrogated him.
The Delhi Police had in 2006 filed formal charges against five Jammu and Kashmir residents, Tariq Dar, Mohd Hussain Fazli, Rafiq Shah, Farooq Ahmed Batloo and Ghulam Ahmed Khan, after its i nvestigation, and claimed they were members of the LET.
Six other alleged LET members -- Abu Huzefa, Abu al Qama, Abu Zaid, Rashid, Mansoor and Sajjad Salafi – were also accused for their involvement in the conspiracy and execution of serial blasts in the national Capital but could not be arrested during investigation. The city police also claimed that Huzefa was killed in an encounter with a joint team of the Delhi Police and Rashtriya Rifles on January 17, 2006 in Khorsherabad village of Pattan in J&K.
The city police charged Rafiq Shah for planting a bomb in the DTC bus , Mansoor for planting a bomb at Paharganj and Rashid and Sajjad Salafi for planting a bomb at Sarojini Nagar.
Two of the five accused, Farooq Ahmed Batloo and Ghulam Ahmed Khan, pleaded guilty of charges terror funding and conspiracy to facilitate a terrorist act in 2014 at the beginning of trial and were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.
Only three accused, Dar, Fazli and Rafiq Shah, faced trial. Fazil and Shah were acquitted and Dar was convicted by the court for two separate offences relating to “membership of a terrorist organisation” and “support given to a terrorist organisation” under Section 38 and 39 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Since maximum punishment for these offences was 10 years in prison and Dar had already spent 11 years in jail, he was set free. The court slammed the investigators for the quality of the probe, saying they had “miserably failed” to prove the charges.
Before Ariz, other arrested IM operatives – Sadiq Israr Sheikh, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi and Yasin Bhatkal – too have told interrogators that the Diwali-eve blasts in Delhi were handiwork of IM , the investigators said.
The Delhi police spokesperson was not available for any comment despite repeated attempts by HT.
BJP, elect from Maski Pratapagouda Patil is also said to be missing. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara claimed that Patil had signed the letter in support of JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy. Subsequently, though, it is believed that Patil slipped away before all Congress legislators were herded into a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru first and then taken to Hyderabad from where they are expected to return for Saturday’s vote.
In a day filled with minute-byminute turn of events, reports emerged that the JD(S) had convinced a BJP MLA, Preetham Gowda ,who has been elected from Hassan constituency, to support Kumaraswamy. The JD(S) won six of the seven assembly seats in Hassan with Preetham being the exception. The Hassan Lok Sabha seat is represented by JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda and the district is considered a stronghold of the party. The BJP spokesperson S Prakash denied that Preetham had switched sides: “All our 104 MLAS are intact. If anything, we will see more legislators support us on the floor of the house. Preetham is also related to our senior leader C T Ravi. Why would he switch?”
There was also some confusion over the current stand of the independents. The two independent MLAS R Shankar from Ranibennur and H Nagesh from Mulbagal who were said to be with Congress-jd(s) alliance were said to have left Hyderabad on their own late on Friday evening. HT couldn’t independently establish their whereabouts.
Senior political analyst S Mahadev Prakash said this current environment of poaching and counter-poaching marked a new low in Karnataka politics. “There is no clarity on who is with whom. All are claims being made by the respective parties. Till the vote on motion of confidence does take place, we will not know who stands on which side.”
The Congress also criticised governor Vaijubhai Vala’s decision to make KG Bopaiah the protem speaker. Bopaiah shot into the limelight when he controversially disqualified 10 BJP MLAS rebelling against their own chief minister BS Yeddyurappa in 2010. His act was subsequently criticised by the Supreme Court, which said the speaker had acted hastily in an attempt to ensure the continuance of Yeddyurappa’s government. town along the IB i n the state with a population of over 20,000, have been asked to stay indoors.
Schools within a five kilometre radius of the border have also been closed as a preventive measure.
Meanwhile, Indian high commissioner Ajay Bisaria was summoned to the foreign office in Islamabad, where the acting foreign secretary condemned what was described as “unprovoked ceasefire violations” along the Line of Control (LOC) and the IB that killed four civilians and injured 10 more.
A statement from the Foreign Office contended that Indian troops “continuously targeting civilian populated areas with heavy weapons”.
It added that the ceasefire violations are a threat to regional peace and “may lead to a strategic miscalculation”.
The statement said there were more than 1,050 ceasefire violations along the LOC and interna- tional border this year that resulted in the death of 28 civilians and injuries to 117 others.
Pakistan asked the Indian side to respect the 2003 ceasefire arrangement and to investigate all violations.