Key IM leader, 4 others held
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, September 24
In a joint operation involving police officials from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, one of the founder members and four important activists of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), wanted for carrying out bomb blasts in different parts of the country, have been arrested.

Disclosing this at a press conference here today, Mumbai’s police commissioner Hasan Gafoor and senior officials said the IM was headed by Aamir Reza who is based in Pakistan. “We have arrested five persons so far and recovered explosives, ammunition, sub-machine guns, among other things, from them,” Gafoor said. The haul also included 15 kg RDX, which were brought in to carry out blasts in Mumbai, he said.

Gafoor claimed a breakthrough in the investigations with the arrest of Mohammad Sadiq, who he said, was one of the founder members of the Indian Mujahideen. Four other associates of Sadiq, have also been arrested. “All of them were also linked to the banned SIMI,” he said.

Those arrested include Afzal Usmani, Mohammad Zakib, Mohammad Arif Shaikh and Shaikh Ansar, all hailing from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. All of them are in their late-20s and early 30s.

“Three of the five fellows arrested so far have been trained in a neighbouring country,” the police commissioner said, referring to Pakistan. Two of those arrested were trained software and civil engineers. The police commissioner said Mohammed Sadik was originally from Sajjanpur in Azamgarh district and had settled down in Cheetah Camp locality of Trombay in Mumbai’s outskirts.