(Eds: Updating with more details)New Delhi, Jan 22 (PTI) Abdul Subhan Qureshi, known as'India's Osama bin Laden' and wanted for being the mainconspirator of the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts, has beenarrested following a brief exchange of fire, Delhi Police saidtoday.
Qureshi alias Tauqeer, co-founder of the IndianMujahideen (IM) and linked to the Students Islamic Movement ofIndia (SIMI), was arrested from Ghazipur in east Delhi onSaturday evening, ahead of Republic Day.
Qureshi, one of India's most wanted terrorists, hadexecuted the 2008 Gujarat serial blasts that claimed over 50lives, as he wanted to do "something spectacular" to avengethe arrest of his associates, police said.
He was working with a top IT firm before he joinedSIMI in 2001-2002. The 46-year-old is a techie and had he notjoined SIMI, he would have been a high-ranking official in afirm, police said.
He was arrested after the police got a tip-off that hewould come to meet an old acquaintance in Ghazipur.
As many as 13-14 rounds were exchanged between the policeand Qureshi, said Pramod Singh Kushwah, deputy commissioner ofpolice (Special Cell).
A pistol, live cartridges and a Santro car, stolen inNovember 2014, were seized from him.
Even though his arrest came days before Republic Day,police said that he was not planning any attacks in Delhi.
He was later handed over to the Delhi Police by a citycourt for custodial interrogation for two weeks.
It had emerged following interrogation of IM and SIMIoperatives, who had been arrested earlier, that Qureshi wasindoctrinating the unemployed youth among the community tofill the void left by the fall of top IM operatives.
He was planning the revival of the scattered network ofthe organisation in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka,Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh -- areas where the outfit enjoyed astronghold earlier, the DCP said.
Qureshi had earned the moniker 'India's Osama bin Laden'as police forces of many states and the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) were on the lookout for him.
He was wanted by the NIA in connection with its probeinto the December 2007 Wagamon SIMI arms training camp case. Areward of Rs four lakh had also been announced for his arrest.
The Maharashtra Police was also on the lookout for himfor his alleged role in the blasts that rocked Mumbai in July2011.
During his stay in Bijapur in Karnataka, he frequentlytravelled to Bhatkal and revived his association with IMassociate Riyaz Bhatkal. He also came in contact with IqbalBhatkal, another IM operative, Kushwah said.
On July 11, 2006, SIMI and IM executed serial blasts inthe local trains in Mumbai.
Subsequently Qureshi's name figured in this case and hefled from Mumbai to Karnataka, said the officer.
SIMI and IM together wanted to carry out widespreadterror activities. A meeting of SIMI cadres under the aegis ofSIMI chief Safdar Nagori and Qureshi took place at CastleRock, Hubli, Karnataka in 2007, police said.
Subsequently, training camps of SIMI cadres wereorganised at Choral, (Indore, MP) in November 2007, at Wagamon(Kerala) in December 2007 and at Halol (Gujarat) in January2008, Kushwah saidIn these training camps, physical and psychologicaltraining was imparted to the cadres to wage jihad againstIndia.
Mountaineering, swimming, map reading, pistol firing,preparing and using Molotov cocktail (Petrol Bomb), enactingfake accidents to declare death of cadres and other evadingtactics to be adopted to mislead the interrogators ifarrested, were also taught, the DCP said.
Qureshi and Nagori were the main organisers and chiefinstructors at such camps.
Following the arrest of Nagori and other SIMI activists,Qureshi became the head of SIMI and took the initiative toengineer the 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat as revenge for thearrests of his associates, said the officer.
For this purpose, he contacted his IM associate RiyazBhatkal and went to meet the latter in Pune in May-June 2008to share the details of his plan and offered his team tophysically execute the bomb blasts.
According to the plan, a group of radically motivatedyouths of IM were tasked with planting bombs at differentplaces in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Kushwah said.
On July 26, 2008, 23 serial bomb blasts rocked Ahmedabadresulting in death of 57 people and grievous injuries to over150 others. In total, 20 cases were registered in differentpolice stations in Ahmedabad.
The IM terrorists also planted IEDs at several places inSurat. However, the IEDs did not explode due to malfunctioningof the timer device.
Police recovered 29 unexploded IEDs between July 27 andAugust 3, 2008.
As soon as the role of SIMI and IM came to the fore,Qureshi left Gujarat and fled to Ranchi to take shelter at theresidence of a SIMI cadre, said Kushwah.
From Ranchi, he went to Chappra and then to Raxaul on theIndo-Nepal border in Bihar. He crossed over to Nepal andreached Birat Nagar where he met a man named Nizam Khan, aSIMI sympathiser, who ran an NGO, Nepal Development Society,he said.
He informed Khan about his SIMI links but did notdisclose his real identity.
With Khan's help he started to live in Batta, BiratNagar, and also started teaching English at a Christianboarding school. He stayed in Batta from October 2008 toJanuary 2009 and then moved to Gorkha.
During his stay in Nepal, Qureshi also managed to procurefake local civilian IDs (Voter ID) through Khan and remainedin Nepal till 2015.
During this period, he again came in contact with RiyazBhatkal who motivated him to come to Riyadh, Saudia Arabia,for arranging finances and to revive IM in India, the DCPsaid.
He procured a Nepali passport in the name of Abdul Rehmanand in February-March 2015, he went to Saudi Arabia on thebasis of that passport, he said.
For cover, he worked as a salesman in various stores andalso had meetings with many SIMI-IM sympathisers there. Hereturned from Saudi Arabia in June 2017.
After returning from Saudi Arabia, he started to visitIndia clandestinely to revive SIMI-IM, when he realised thatSIMI leaders had been arrested or had fled India, saidKushwah.
Through his contacts, he procured logistics for hisvisits to India. PTI SLB TDS ASKASK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.