Arrested IM operatives procured, delivered explosives: Police

The operatives sent money through Hawala; at least one of them attended meetings abroad, and plotted to deliver deadly explosives for blasts across the country

Four suspected operatives of banned outfit Indian Mujahideen arrested recently were part of a terror module that was used to procure, fabricate and deliver deadly explosives, a top Bengaluru police official said today.

The IM operatives transferred money through Hawala channels for funding and at least one of them attended meetings in a foreign country, where a conspiracy was hatched to manufacture and deliver deadly explosives which were probably used for blasts in different parts of the country, he said.

"I would say that a picture is emerging based on the interrogation that we have done. This was a module that was used by the IM as well as the other terrorist organisations to procure, fabricate, supply and deliver deadly explosives," Bengaluru Police Commissioner M N Reddi told reporters.

"We are also aware that these explosive devices in all probability have been used in some of the blasts across the country in last few years. We are in the process of establishing very clearly the connectivity between these various events - that will take some time," he added.

Bengaluru police on Thursday had claimed to have unearthed a terror module of IM with the arrest of its three alleged operatives and seizure of a huge cache of explosives during raids on their houses at Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district and here.

The fourth alleged operative was arrested on Sunday at Mangaluru international airport before flying to Dubai. Reddi said there was nothing so far to link the arrested persons with the December 28 Bengaluru blast that claimed the life of a woman.

Asked whether the foreign country where one of the accused had travelled is Pakistan, Reddi said, "I would say that it would be easy for us to name a country once we have very concrete evidence and that concrete evidence is in the process of being collected."

On the spread of the network to other parts of the state or the country, he said, "All leads that come to us will be examined. We will go to the logical conclusion to see whether there were any such individuals or groups located in other parts of the country who have participated in this process."

Reddi said central agencies were involved in not only generating intelligence, but also in the investigation process. "We have the complete co-ordination between the city police, the ISD (Internal Security Division of Karnataka government), the neighbouring states and the central agencies."

He said IM men's operations were being controlled from somewhere outside, but work was being carried out here. On their handler, he said, "all that I can say is that these are some of the most wanted people by our security agencies and they are absconding from this country." Reddi said Riyaz Sayeedi was arrested based on information collected from the accused already arrested in the explosives case.

"The basis is he had acted in tandem with one or two of the existing people in the whole process of procurement, fabrication and delivery of deadly explosive devices,"he said. "In his personal place of dwelling, we have not found anything incriminating yet."

To a query he said, "We know for sure that he was travelling on a prefixed date, therefore it is wrong to say he was fleeing." On allegations that police had planted the explosives and the accused are innocent, he said, "Indian Police is not in the business of planting bombs; we are doing honest, transparent and professional investigation."

He said he could understand the agony of the parents and the family who maintained that the arrested persons were innocent. "....so I take it that it's a reaction on their part out of the agony..." Reddi said raids were based on concrete information and the house used for storing explosives was very less frequented. It was not all the time used as the dwelling place and therefore chosen by these groups to store explosives.

Asked about foreign link to the activities of the arrested alleged IM operatives, he said, "Investigators are not depending only on calls received or made to a foreign country. That may not even be important...; but there is lot more to pin the person down to the dastardly act of manufacturing deadly explosive that has taken hundreds of lives in this country."