Court extends remand of accused by two days
FOUR LOWINTENSITY GRENADES WERE HURLED AT MAQSUDAN POLICE STATION ON SEPTEMBER 14
: A week after the arrest two Kashmiri students in the Maqsudan police station bomb blast case, police are yet to get any lead on the whereabouts of the four accused, who are on the run.
Meanwhile, a local court on Monday extended police remand of the arrested accused by two days. Earlier, the police had managed to get four days remand on November 8.
Two Kashmiri students — Fazil Bashir, 23, and Shahid Qayoom, 22, were arrested in the case on November 3 and 4, respectively. Faizal was arrested by Punjab Police from Awantipora in Kashmir and Shahid was arrested from Jalandhar.
Two other Kashmiris, including Mir Ravoof Ahmed alias Rouf and Mir Umar Ramzan alias Gazi, were also named in the FIR and are absconding.
Fazil and Shahid told the police that two more Kashmiris were involved in the attack apart from Rouf and Gazi. One, who brought the explosives to Jalandhar from Kashmir, remains unidentified. Another, Amir of Tral town in Pulwama, had handed the explosives to them a week before the attack on police station.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP- investigation) Gurmeet Singh said Amir had handed over four low-intensity bombs to the arrested students in Jalandhar.
“We have sent the photographs of Gazi, Rouf and Amir to police stations and agencies across the country to trace them. We are yet to get any clue of their whereabouts,” the DCP said.
He said that all six accused are associated with Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) — a Valleybased terrorist outfit with links to Jaish-e-Mohammed. They were arrested for throwing four low-intensity grenades at the Maqsudan police station on September 14. The AGH is headed by Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Zakir Mussa, who masterminded the attacks.
“We are investigating the case but so far there is no evidence to ascertain a direct link between the AGH and the Khalistani militants, confirming that they joined hands to carry out the blasts,” the DCP said.
He further said the arrested students told the police that they had never met Zakir Mussa and were in contact with the AGH group members through WhatsApp and other social media applications. They came in contact with Mussa through Amir, who is a close associate of him.
The DCP said the police are working on various theories and the court extended their two-day remand for further investigation.
An FIR under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the Explosives Act was registered against all six accused at Jalandhar Division number 1 police station.