‘Bomb was brought in buses’

Pune Blast

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: Alleged mastermind of the Pune German Bakery blast, Mirza Himayat Baig and wanted accused Ahmed Zarar alias Yaseen Bhatkal, had carried a 3 kg RDX bomb from Udgir in Latur district to Pune—a distance of 380 km—in state transport buses, sources in the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) said. The detonators were attached to the bomb hours before the blast on February 13.

The ATS on September 7 arrested Baig (29). “The bomb was assembled at Baig’s cyber cafe—Global Internet Cafe—in Udgir. Later, Zarar joined him in Udgir and the duo took a bus for Pune. They changed several buses before they reached the Pune bus station. To reach the target, the duo hired an auto,’’ said a senior ATS officer. The police seized four detonators and 1,200 gm of RDX from Baig’s cyber cafe. He is said to be the chief recruiter for banned outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba, in Maharashtra. To avoid suspicion, the duo carried the bomb in a polythene bag.

It takes around 10 hours by road from Udgir to Pune. The explosive was brought to Udgir by another wanted accused, Mohsin Chaudhary, on February 7 and the trio assembled the bomb between 1 am and 4 am on February 8. “Between February 8 and the morning of February 13, the bomb was kept at Baig’s cyber cafe and he would check it every day. The bomb was kept in a corner of the Cafe and people would surf the net in the same room,’’ a source said.

The blast, said investigators, was carried out to protest the arrest of around 21 Indian Mujahideen (IM) members in Maharashtra in 2008. Moreover, investigators found that Baig had also planned attacks at Maharashtra Police Academy, Military Cantonment and police commissionerate, all in Nashik district. These targets were decided in May.

The Times of India, September 15, 2010