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Bangalore: The
Karnataka crime branch Saturday set up a special team to
investigate the alleged terror links of a dozen youths arrested
this week and unravel their alleged plans to carry deadly attacks
in the state with support from banned outfits LeT and HuJi.
"We have formed a special investigation team to crack the case
registered against the 12 suspects arrested and unravel their
plans to carry terror attacks in the state on the basis of
evidence collected through preliminary interrogation and
incriminating materials seized from them so far," Bangalore Police
Commissioner Jyotiprakash Mirji told reporters here.
The crime branch sleuths picked up the terror suspects - 11 from
Bangalore and Hubli in Karnataka Wednesday and one from Hyderabad
in Andhra Pradesh Friday. A 7.65mm pistol, seven cartridges, 16
mobile handsets, eight SIM cards, three pen drives, four ATMs,
seven laptops and one bike were recovered from them and their
hideouts in the state.
"In addition to arms and ammunition, incriminating materials,
including jehadi literature, two maps of Chennai and India, a map
of Iran, Urdu newspaper cuttings and religious books were seized
in Bangalore and Hubli," Mirji said a day after the families of
the accused cried foul over the dramatic arrest of their
relatives, including sons and brothers.
As part of the investigation, the seized material has been sent to
forensic analysis for further evidence and in support of the
confessional statements they had made during the interrogation.
"We have learnt from some of the accused that Rehman was plotting
to assassinate a prominent leader of a Hindu organisation in
Hyderabad and two corporators of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP) in the city.
"They have also plotted to attack vital installations such as the
Kaiga nuclear power plant (about 500 km from Bangalore) and the
Sea Bird naval base at Karwar (in Uttara Kannada district on the
west coast of the state)," Mirji claimed.
Of the 12 accused, the six from Bangalore are Shoaib Ahmed Mirza
(25), Abdullah alias Abdul Hakim Jamdar (25), Izaz Mohammed Mirza
(25), Mohammed Yosuf Nalaband (28), Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti (28) and
Muthi-ur-Rehman Siddiqui (26).
Those arrested from Hubli are Obedullah Imran Bahaddur (24),
Mohammed Sadik Lashkar (28), Waheed Hussein (26), Mehboob
Bagalokote (26) and Iqbal. The 12th suspect is Mohammed Ubaidur
Rehman, 26, a student from the old city of Hyderabad.
The suspects have been charged under the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
and the Arms Act. Eleven of the accused were remanded to 14-day
police custody Thursday for investigations, while Rehman was
produced in a local court Saturday for similar remand.
The arrests were made for allegedly plotting to assassinate
leading state politicians, high profile journalists and a media
baron in collusion with their Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islam (Huji) handlers in Saudi Arabia.
Mirji, however, declined to respond to the statements made by the
families of the accused Friday that their sons and brothers were
innocent and their arrests were a case of mistaken identity.
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