Arrests loom for engineer, brother

Mateen Hafeez & S Ahmed Ali I TNN

Mumbai: Software engineer Muzammil Shaikh and his unemployed brother, Faisal, are likely to be arrested “soon’’ for their alleged involvement in the serial blasts that killed around 200 people.

Officials claimed on Wednesday that Muzammil, who used to work in Bangalore, and Faisal, a resident of Naya Nagar in Mira Road, had both gone to Pakistan via Tehran for arms training.

The crime branch of the city police also picked up three persons from two southern districts of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday afternoon. Madhya Pradesh Police officials said two persons — unani physician Abdul Wajid and cloth merchant Sajjad Beig alias Baba—were picked up from Burhanpur district and cook Hamid Qazi was picked up from a PWD resthouse in Khandwa. MP intelligence additional director-general S K Raut said: “The crime branch told us they were taking three persons since they had vital contacts in Mumbai which could help the ongoing probe.’’

The anti-terrorism squad has already arrested six persons for involvement in Terror Tuesday. Two of them, Zameer Shaikh (of Worli) and Sohail Shaikh (of Pune), were produced in court on Wednesday and cops got their remand till 7 August.
Out of the six arrested — Kamal Ahmed, Khalid Shaikh, Mumtaz Chaudhuri, Tanvir Ansari, Zameer Shaikh and Sohail Shaikh—officials claim the last four have already “confessed’’ to visiting Pakistan for receiving terror training.

Officials said Sohail went last year. “He got down at Tehran airport, where Lashkar-e-Taiba men were there to receive him. He was taken to Pakistan by road via Ziadan and introduced to at least two members of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. We have got important leads but can’t reveal it at this juncture,’’ an officer said.

ATS chief Krish Pal Raghuvanshi said Sohail and Zameer were trained in making bombs similar to those used on 11 July.

“The picture is becoming clearer but we don’t want to reveal the exact role played by them just now,’’ he said, indicating there would be more arrests in the next few days.

Despite claiming the “confessions’’, officials admitted they were not admissible in court. But the “confessions’’ would help them understand how terrorists functioned, they reasoned.

Zameer and Sohail said they were former Students’ Islamic Movement of India members and were sent to Pakistan via Iran by Ansari, officials claimed. But Ansari and Chaudhuri said it was one Raheel Shaikh who organised their trips to Pakistan.

Raheel, an active LeT member from the Grant Road area, had approached Ansari and Chaudhuri and had asked them to participate in some “nek kaam (good job)’’, officials said.

Blast suspects may face narco tests
The ATS is planning to subject all six suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba members arrested in connection with the 7/11 blasts to scientific tests, including narco-analysis.

While scientific methods such as lie-detector and brainmapping tests can be used as supporting evidence in a trial, other tests like narcoanalysis help collect information, sources said.

“They may be subjected to scientific tests to ascertain their involvement in the serial blasts,’’ a senior officer said. He added that investigators were confident those arrested were part of two separate LeT modules, and wanted to know whether the six were involved in the serial blasts or if they knew of any other module that may have been involved.

The Times of India, July 27, 2006