NIA conducts raids in search of Patna blast suspects

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Friday conducted searches at several places in Bihar to hunt for the Oct 27 Patna serial blast terror suspects, police said.

Two days after Bihar Police formally handed over the investigations into the series of blasts, the NIA carried out searches in Muzaffarpur and Motihari of the East Champaran district to trace the suspects and their links.

"The NIA raided a student lodge and residential localities in Muzaffarpur and a village near Motihari on the basis of information provided by one of the arrested terror suspects, Mohammad Imtiaz Ansari," a police official said.

Ansari disclosed vital information during interrogation by the NIA and intelligence officials here.

According to police officials, the NIA raided a lodge in Muzaffarpur in search of Sarwar Ali, a youth suspected to be involved in the blasts.

The NIA team also raided the village of arrested terror suspect Tabish Neyaz alias Arshad to look for more links.

Earlier, the NIA conducted raids at a few lodges in Patna's Kun Kun Singh Lane.

Seven people, including a suspect in the seventh bomb explosion at the Patna railway station, were killed and nearly 100 injured in the blasts ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rally.