The two German Bakery blast suspects met in 2006 and were trained in terror camps in Colombo and Karachi
The two German Bakery blast suspects met in 2006 and were trained in terror camps in Colombo and KarachiThe Maharashtra ATS claimed a major breakthrough in the Feb 13 German Bakery blast case with the arrest of two LeT operatives yesterday, but the fight against terror groups is far from over.
Investigations of Himayat Baig (29),u00a0andu00a0Shaikh Hussain alias Bilal have revealed that all Islamic terror groups that have been busted since 2006 are not only operative, but have also joined hands to form a huge network, said ATS officials.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
How they met...u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
According to ATS officials, the German Bakery blast was carried out by suspected LeT militants involved in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case and IM operatives.
Baig worked at a library in Pune where he came in touch with Akbar Choudhry. Through Akbar he contacted Moshin (now absconding) in 2006 and the two met Yasin Bhatkal. After their first meeting, they kept in touch.
Around the same time, Baig met Bilal and other IM operatives on the Azam campus in Pune where he was studying B.Ed, said an ATS officer.u00a0u00a0u00a0
"Soon Baig was sent to Colombo for terror training. In 2008, Bilal went to Karachi where he was trained as to how to use arms and returned in January 2010," said ATS chief Rakesh Maria.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
Conspiracy In January, Baig along with Bhatkal and Mohsin held a meeting at a cyber cafe in Udgir in Latur district to select 'targets'.u00a0
"The three noted various places across India, but Baig insisted on planting bombs at the German Bakery because it was frequented by foreigners," said an ATS officer.
Baig conducted a recce of the bakery a number of times, and on Feb 3 the terror planu00a0 was finalised in Udgir. "Mohsin was the one who got the explosives to Pune on Febu00a0 7 and the bombs were made that night by him along with Bhatkal and Baig,"u00a0 said Maria.
On Feb 13, Bhatkal and Baig went to German Bakery after changing two rickshaws and stopped 4 km away from it. They walked that distance, after which Bhatkal entered the bakery, placed the bag of explosives and left, said investigators.
Mobile timer"A mobile alarm timer was used to trigger the RDX-laden bomb. Bhatkal's image was caught on CCTV camera. There is no image of Baig since he waited outside the bakery when Bhatkal went in to plant the bomb," said the ATS chief Maria.
| New terror hub? |
| The ATS suspects that Colombo is LeT's new training base. "That Colombo is being used as a training ground came up in investigations. There are chances that Baig went to Colombo for training in 2006 as they were no visas required then to visit the country," said Maria. |
