Missing RDX of 2006 used in bakery blast?

Baig Knew Suspects In Arms Haul Case

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) is checking whether the missing RDX in the Aurangabad arms haul case in May 2006 was used in the bomb which was planted at Pune’s German Bakery.

The ATS arrested suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) Maharashtra commander, Mirza Himayat Baig (29), on Tuesday in connection with the Pune blast. Baig was close to Fayyaz Kagazi and Zabihuddin Ansari alias Zaby, both wanted suspects in the Aurangabad arms haul case.

The ATS had seized 43 kg RDX, 16 AK-74 rifles, 50 hand grenades and 3,200 live bullets and arrested 19 youths in the Aurangabad case. “Though Baig knew about the arms haul, he was neither questioned nor arrested in the case,” said an ATS officer. A car driven by Zaby, which contained hand grenades and RDX, had managed to give the police the slip in May 2006. The car was later found in Malegaon but the deadly RDX was missing.

“Wanted accused Mohsin Chawdhary had brought the RDX, which was used in the Pune blast, to Baig’s cafe in Udgir, Latur, on February 7. We are questioning Baig to find out if the missing RDX of 2006 was stored somewhere and used to assemble the bomb that went off at German Bakery,” said an officer.

The source of the RDX found in 2006 is still not known. “In the Pune blast around two to three kg RDX was used,” state ATS chief Rakesh Maria said.

The ATS was tightlipped about the “mode of communication” used by the group to interact with each other. There is a possibility of them chatting on the Net or using the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) facility from Baig’s cyber cafe.

Baig has been charged with conspiracy, and assembing and transporting the bomb. The bomb went off inside German Bakery on February 13, killing 17 and injuring 65 others. The police say the blast plot was hatched by the LeT and executed by the fugitive members of banned outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM).

When asked whether the suspects would be booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Maria said, “We have already invoked sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). We are yet to decide on MCOCA.”

Earlier, the ATS had invoked MCOCA in all bomb blast cases, including the 7/11 train bombings, 2006 Malegaon blast, 2008 Malegaon blasts, Aurangabad arms haul and the arrest of Indian Mujahideen suspects.

Talking about the merging of the operatives of the LeT and Indian Mujahideen, Maria said, “Baig was called for the meeting at a hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He met Kagazi and the others and they decided to group all the recruits and members of the sleeper cell under one command. Baig stayed in Colombo for three weeks.”

From Colombo, Baig went to Chennai and then to Hyderabad before returning to Latur where he started the cyber cafe, Global Internet Cafe. “Kagazi handed over Rs 2.4 lakh to Baig for recruiting new boys and other expenses. However, Baig used this money to set up the cyber cafe but, at the same time, identified boys and sent them to Pakistan for training,” Maria said. According to sources, the police has a list of more than half a dozen boys who had gone to Pakistan for terror training. Interestingly, Baig has never been to Pakistan himself.

Maria said the module headed by Baig was “very techno savvy” and kept changing its methods and improving skills. “Baig is tremendously ingenious,” he added.

Baig, a resident of Udgir, Latur, was arrested by the Pune police in 2007 for possession of firearms. He was wanted in another case registered by the ATS in Mumbai under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for distributing jihadi literature in Pune.

Baig had cleared his first year diploma in education but failed in the second year. He was studying at a Pune-based college and had stayed in the college hostel from 2003 to 2005.

Baig was also a member of Kerala’s Popular Front of India and he was assigned with the task of enrolling more members for the party.

ATS made several rounds of Udgir
Udgir (Latur): Sleuths of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) visited Udgir on several occasions in the recent past. In fact, one ATS team that had camped in the town left from there on Wednesday night. Mirza Himayat Baig (29), who was picked up by the ATS in Pune on Tuesday, is a resident of Udgir and ran an internet cafe there. The bomb used in the German Bakery blast was believed to have been assembled in the cafe, where Baig also held a series of meetings with his accomplices in the blast case. P 3

Baig taken to Mumbai for interrogation
Pune: Mirza Himayat Baig (29), who was arrested by the ATS in Pune in the German Bakery blast case, and his associate, Bilal Baba Hussain Fareed Shaikh, who was arrested in Nashik in another case, have both been taken to Mumbai for interrogation. Investigations in the blast has prima facie revealed that the accused had found the bakery to be a soft target as it was frequented by foreigners, an ATS official said. P 3


The Times of India, (Pune), September 10, 2010