Delhi Police, Who Arrested Waqas, Won’t Say Why
Mateen Hafeez TNN
Suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Waqas Saad Shaikh, who was arrested by the Delhi police’s special cell in Jaipur on Saturday, had stayed for three days at a lodge in Bandra (West) before leaving for Rajasthan. The Delhi police has been reluctant to speak about why the terror suspect was in Mumbai.
Sources in the Delhi police’s special cell said that
before coming to Mumbai, Waqas had been hiding in a safe house in Kerala
for some time. “He took a train from Kerala to Mumbai, planning to go
to Ajmer. We are interrogating him,” said special cell commissioner S M
Srivastava.
In the past, the cell arrested several terror
suspects who were initially named as wanted by the Maharashtra police.
The suspects include Zabihuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, the handler of
the 26/11 terrorists, and 13/7 bomb planters and IM operatives Yasin
Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar, alias Tabrez.
Was Waqas planning
to help Bhatkal escape from police custody in Mumbai? Srivastava said,
“Till now, it has not come up in the interrogation.” The special cell is
likely to give Maharashtra’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS) the address of
the Bandra lodge where Waqas stayed so that witnesses’ statements can be
recorded.
Meanwhile, ATS chief Himanshu Roy has said that the
squad will get a warrant from a Mumbai court to get Waqas’s custody for
the July 2011 triple blasts, in which 27 people were killed. Bhatkal and
Tabrez are in ATS custody. The three, before and after
the 13/7 blasts, stayed at Habib Mansion in Byculla. They rented a room
on the third floor of the building for Rs 8,000 and made IEDs.
Sources
in the security establishment said Waqas’s facial and physical
similarity with absconding IM operative Aariz Junaid Khan had delayed
his arrest. “The police wanted to be sure before picking up Waqas and so they used technology to verify the suspect as Waqas,” said a source.
Khan,
an Azamgarh resident, and several IM operatives were named in an FIR
filed by the National Investigation Agency in June 2012. The same year,
Khan’s photograph
was identified as Waqas’s by a witnesses in Darbhanga, where Waqas had
spent some time. “The confusion may have been due to their similar
looks. This was one of the reasons the initial poster, issued by the
NIA, on 12 wanted IM operatives did not carry Waqas’s photograph,” a
source said.
WAQAS’S TERROR TRAIL
WAQAS SAAD SHAIKH, ALIAS JAVED, ALIAS MOTA BHAI, A NATIVE OF PAKISTAN’S PROVINCE, IS AMONG THE MOST ACTIVE MEMBERS OF INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN. HE TRAVELLED ACROSS INDIA IN SEARCH OF TERROR TARGETS
1 SEP 2010 | Waqas arrived in India via Kathmandu,
along with Indian Mujahideen member Asadullah Akhtar, alias Tabrez. A
week after their arrival to Samastipur, Bihar, IM co-founder Yasin
Bhatkal briefed them about a plan to gun down foreigners in Delhi’s Jama
Masjid. Waqas carried out the attack on September 19
2 DEC 7, 2010 | Waqas planted a bomb at Sheetalghat in Varansasi,
to mark the demolition of Babri Masjid and to protest against the
Allahabad high court’s order on the issue. At the time, his base of
operations was Bihar
3 JAN 2011 | Waqas and Tabrez arrived in Mumbai and rented a room in Habib Mansion, Byculla. In April, he was admitted to JJ Hospital for an eye problem
4 JULY 2011 Waqas went to Mangalore to collect explosives. He assembled four bombs and planted one at Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai, on July 13
5 FEB 21, 2013 | Waqas and Tabrez planted bombs in Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad. Tabrez left for Samastipur, Waqas stayed in a safe house in Karnataka
6 NOV 2013 Delhi police busted an alleged Indian Mujahideen module. Waqas escaped to Goa and stayed at Anuja beach in Madgaon
7 MAR 22, 2014 Delhi police claimed to have arrested Waqas at Jaipur railway station. He was on his way to Mumbai
CASES WHERE WAQAS IS WANTED
July 2011 Mumbai triple blasts, in which 27 people died
August 2012 Pune blasts, in which one person was injured. Six bombs were planted on J M Road September 2010 Delhi Jama Masjid firing, in which two foreigners were injured and a policeman died
December 2010 blast at Sheetalghat, Varanasi, in which 15 were injured
February 2013 Hyderabad twin blasts
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