BENGALURU/BHATKAL: Telangana police began questioning the three suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives on Sunday after a police source revealed that they had confessed to providing explosives for the Hyderabad blasts.
Syed Ismail Afaq, Saddam Hussain and Abdus Saboor had confessed to supplying explosives to carry out the Dilsukhnagar blast in February 2013. They are being grilled on their financial sources, logistic support, network and main handlers.
Officials of the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Internal Security Division and Central intelligence agencies also interrogated them in connection with previous cases and their contact with other suspects.
According to police sources, the accused have revealed that they were in contact with 11 suspects in Hubballi, Dharwad, Bidar, Mangaluru and Belagavi who were engaged in building their network. They also examined the call logs of Afaq and Riyaz Ahmed Sayeedi. Sayeedi was arrested from Bajpe airport near Mangaluru airport at 11.40 pm on Saturday just before he was to board a Dubai-bound Jet Airways flight. Police said they have found similarities in the outgoing calls of the two men. Sources said all the accused may be taken to Bhatkal to dig out more information.
City Police Commissioner M N Reddi said, “The interrogation of these suspects has thrown light on the sourcing of explosives. It has also filled the missing links in the investigation of various terror cases across the nation.”
Tanzeem Postpones Bhatkal Bandh
Meanwhile, Majlis-e-Islah Wa Tanzeem, a social organisation, which had called for Bhatkal bandh on Monday to protest against the CCB police raid on the house of Saboor’s father Mohammed Hussain in connection with the Church Street blast, has postponed the bandh.
Tanzeem president Muzammil Khazia told Express that the decision was taken at a meeting of its members on Sunday.
A delegation of the organisation’s members will meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah or Home Minister K J George to urge them to direct the police to take leaders of the town into confidence before conducting any raid to ensure transparency in inquiry, he said.
The recent raid on the house of a terror suspect was done without informing the media or local leaders.
If the police want to conduct raids in sensitive cases, they should be accompanied by the media and local leaders. The government will be urged to give a direction to the police in this regard, he said. He accused a section of media of attempting to defame the name of Bhatkal.
“Tanzeem does not support any terror outfit. We want to highlight that the people of Bhatkal are peace-loving and nobody should tarnish the name of the town,” Khazia added.