IM cofounder, Guj blasts mastermind arrested BREAKTHROUGH
Militant addressed by comrades as India’s Osama Bin Laden had ~4 lakh bounty on his head
NEW DELHI: One of India’s most wanted criminals, the alleged co-founder of terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM) and the suspected mastermind behind the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, has been arrested by Delhi police, senior officers said on Monday.
Abdul Subhan Qureshi, alias Tauqeer, was apprehended around 8.30pm on Saturday after a brief gunfight near the paper market in east Delhi’s Ghazipur locality, deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah told reporters.
The 46-year-old, suspected of being involved in a series of IM terror strikes between 2006 and 2008, had been on the run for the last 10 years.
In the deadliest attack, 23 bombs went off in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, when 56 people were killed and over 200 injured.
“We had received information that Qureshi was en route to Uttar Pradesh in a white Santro car and before that he would meet one of his old SIMI sympathisers in Delhi,” said Kushwah.
The Students’ Islamic Move- ment of India (SIMI) is a banned Islamist organisation that is considered to be the IM’s forerunner.
Qureshi was listed in the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) list of most wanted criminals and had a ~4 lakh reward on his head. Interpol Red Notices had also been issued against him.
“He is believed to be the “al-Arabi” who signed the emails issued by the IM after terror strikes. Qureshi was in India to indoctrinate unemployed Muslim youth to fill the space left void by the fall of top IM leaders and revive its weak and scattered network,” said MM Oberoi, special commissioner of police (special cell).1
A special cell officer said Qureshi — said to be the IM’s top bomb maker — also held the top rank in the SIMI after the arrest of its general secretary Safdar Nagori from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore in March 2008.
The bombs used in the Ahmedabad blasts were similar in scale and style to the blasts in Benga-
luru the day before.
Qureshi was allegedly also instrumental in planting 29 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in 2008 in Surat that did not explode because of malfunctioning of the timer device.
“The unexploded IEDs were recovered between July 27 and August 3 from different locations by Gujarat police. Qureshi is also a suspect in the July 2006 Mumbai train blasts,” said Kushwah.
Police said at least 14 rounds were exchanged before Qureshi’s capture but no one from either side was injured. A pistol and some identity documents were seized. Before the 2008 Gujarat attacks, he set up camps where radicalised young men were taught rock climbing and swimming, bomb making and use of arms. They were also given psychological training on how to mislead interrogators in case of their arrest, said Kushwah.
Police said he was referred to as the Osama Bin Laden of India by fellow terrorists. Upon his return, Qureshi had plans to scout youths in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka where he was once influential, said Kushwah. Asked if Qureshi had plans to launch an attack in Delhi after his return, Kushwah denied it.
Qureshi’s initial interrogation has revealed that he fled to Nepal via Bihar in 2008, soon after his name surfaced in connection with the Ahmedabad serial bombings, police said. During his stay in Nepal till early 2015, Qureshi worked as a school teacher and again came in touch with Riyaz Bhatkal, one of the founder members of IM. He managed to procure a voter ID card and passport of Nepal in the name of Abdul Rehman, the investigators added.
In February-March 2015, Kushwah said that Qureshi went to Saudi Arabia on Bhatkal’s instructions to arrange money needed for the revival of the IM. “After returning from Saudi Arabia in June 2017, Qureshi began visiting India clandestinely to indoctrinate unemployed youth and revive IM’s network,” said Kushwah. Qureshi was on Monday produced before a city court, which ordered he be kept in police custody for 14 days. gations aired by the four judges on January 12 had besmirched his reputation.