ATS moves court to question alleged IM suspect over 2007 serial blasts

THE Anti-terrorist Squad (ATS) of UP Police has moved court seeking a warrant to question alleged Indian Mujahideen operative and Azamgarh native Mohammad Saifur-rehman Ansari regarding the serial blasts at district courts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi in 2007, which left 15 people dead.

Ansari is presently in Ahmedabad jail in connection with another serial blast case of 2008, when 21 explosions within 70 minutes in Gujarat’s capital had left 56 people dead.

An official probing the UP blast cases said the ATS is seeking a warrant to bring Ansari from Ahmedabad to verify the claim linking him to the Faizabad court blast.

According to investigating officials, the ATS has learnt that it was Ansari who allegedly purchased a bicycle, which was later used for planting a bomb on Faizabad district court premises. During the course of investigation, the ATS “recovered” the “carbon copy” of the purchase receipt from ‘Pappu Cycle Store’ in Faizabad from where the bicycle was bought on November 22, 2007. The blast, triggered a day later, killed four people.

According to officials, the shopowner who was shown a photograph told the ATS that it was Ansari who visited his shop and bought the bicycle saying his name was Amir Khan. He had also signed the purchase receipt. The carbon copy of the receipt was retained by the shopkeeper.

The ATS officials are now trying to verify if the handwriting on the receipt is that of Ansari. For this purpose, they want to bring him to UP. Ansari belongs to Badarka locality in Azamgarh.

Anotherallegedimoperative,shadabbeig, who also belongs to Azamgarh and is named in other blast cases, is wanted in Faizabad blast case. The ATS investigation alleges that Beig had engaged Ansari to purchase the bicycle.

Six blasts, within 25 minutes, had rocked district courts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad on November 23, 2007. While nobody was hurt in Lucknow, 15 deaths were reported in the other two blasts. Probe agencies had then said IM and HUJI were behind the blasts.

The UP STF had arrested alleged HUJI operatives Mohammad Tariq Qasmi of Azamgarh, Mohammad Akhtar and Sajjadurrehman of Jammu and Kashmir and Khalid Mujahid of Jaunpur in Faizabad blast case. Khalid had died on his way to Lucknow jail from Faizabad in a police van three years ago.

In the Lucknow blast case, the court had dischargedsajjadur-rehmanwhiletrialagainst the other accused is still going on. Police had alsoarrestedanotherazamgarhnativeandalleged IM operative Arif in connection with Lucknow blast case. The police have yet to make any headway in the Varanasi blast case.

Arif is presently in Ahmedabad jail while the other accused are at Lucknow district jail. So far, 46 witnesses have been examined in Faizabad court blast case, said Mohammad Shoaib, lawyer for all the accused in Lucknow and Faizabad blast cases.