M A I N   N E W S

Hunt on for Mumbai bomber’s aides
S. Iyer

Mumbai, September 13
Hours after the police shot dead the mastermind behind a series of bomb blasts here, a hunt is on for his associates, according to the city’s police Commissioner Ranjit Sharma.

Briefing reporters here, Mr Sharma said the man, identified as Abdul Rehman Sayeed Ali Aydeed, alias Nasir, was a recruiter for Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba. He is suspected to have set up several cells comprising a handful of people to carry out explosions in the city, he added.

A search is on for Zahid Pathani, an associate of Nasir, who could be involved with the terror cells.

Explaining Nasir’s modus operandi, Mr Sharma said he had recruited Syed Mohammed Hanif Abdul Rahim (45) and through him, his wife Fehmida Syed (37) and their daughter Farheen Syed (18). A fourth person, Arshad Shafi Ahmed Ansari (26) recruited by Nasir was introduced to the family in order to carry out the twin bomb blasts in Mumbai on August 25.

The two blasts at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar here claimed 52 lives and injured nearly 200 persons.

Mr Sharma said Nasir’s cells might set off explosion during the coming Navratri festival popular among the huge Gujarati community here. Nasir had set up the Gujarat Revenge Force in Mumbai to target the prosperous Gujarati community here in revenge for the riots in that state two years ago.

Nasir and his associate were killed in an encounter on Friday night. They were intercepted at Matunga in Central Mumbai by a 14-member police team headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shankar Kamble that was chasing their car. When asked to surrender, the two men opened fire at the police. They were, however, killed in retaliatory fire, Mr Sharma Said.

The police says, Nasir and his associate were planning to carry out more blasts in Central Mumbai when they were killed. The blasts could have been planned for as early as this weekend. As many as 92 gelatine sticks, eight detonators, two alarm clocks and a Swiss knife were recovered from the car in which the two blast suspects were travelling.

Minister of State for Home (Rural) Kripashankar Singh said Nasir had supplied explosives for all recent blasts in the city. Nasir had obtained training in manufacturing explosives in Pakistan, he added.

There have been six blasts since December last prior to August twin blasts carried out on August 25. All bombs were placed in trains and buses that were passing through areas populated by the Gujarati community. The police is still trying to piece together Nasir’s role in these blasts.