’93 serial blasts accused held at Mumbai airport

MOOSA HALARI MUNAF ABDUL MAJID ALIAS MUNAF, WAS ON INDIA’S LIST OF 50 MOST WANTED TERRORISTS HANDED OVER TO PAK AFTER 26/11 ATTACKS

MUMBAI: Gujarat’s Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday said it has arrested Moosa Halari Munaf Abdul Majid alias Munaf, 57, who is an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, from the Mumbai international airport. He was on India’s list of 50 most wanted terrorists handed over to Pakistan after the 26/11 terror attacks, it added.

“Moosa was arrested for his involvement in the smuggling of 35kg heroin worth ~175 crore, which was seized off the Mandvi coast in Gujarat on January 2,” said Himanshu Shukla, deputy inspector general of police, Gujarat ATS. Additional director general Deven Bharati of the Maharashtra ATS, too, confirmed Moosa’s arrest.

“Moosa was carrying a Pakistani passport. A team from the Gujarat ATS, which was present at the airport, arrested him,” said a senior ATS officer of Gujarat.

According to the Mumbai crime branch, Moosa had procured three scooters with registration numbers MH-04-Z 261, MH-05- TC-29, MH-05-TC 16 from a scooter dealer, Asgar Ali Tahir Ali Masalawala, after taking a loan of ~70,000 through his friend Rashid Shaikh.

When he was asked to repay the loan, he refused, stating the scooters were purchased by the mastermind of 1993 serial blasts Tiger Memon, and that latter had used them for the blasts, said police. Moosa also warned his friend that Tiger Memon would kill him and his family members if he gave out the details to anyone.

After the serial blasts, he fled to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and from there he went to Bangkok. Later, Memon allegedly got him a Pakistani passport under the name of Anwar Muhammed. He fled to Nairobi in Kenya and was running a business in the name of a firm, Magnum Africa. He then shifted to exporting and importing rice, which was used as a front to smuggle explosives and contraband to India, said officials in Gujarat ATS.

“Moosa had spoken to a Pakistani national, Haji Hasan, about infiltrating the Gujarat coast with explosives. We are interrogating him further,” said an officer from the Gujarat police, requesting anonymity.

Though a Red Corner Notice (RCN) had been issued against him, Moosa entered India two times on Pakistani passport after going into hiding in 1993, assistant commissioner of police (ATS) K K Patel told news agency PTI.

A Red Corner Notice is a kind of international arrest warrant for fugitives where Interpol requests its member countries to arrest or detain them, Patel said.

Halari last entered India in 2014 from Pakistan through the Wagah-attari border in Punjab and visited Mumbai, from where he hails, he said.

The Gujarat ATS has seized his Pakistani passport, which was renewed two times by authorities in the neighbouring country, said Patel.