Bengaluru : Four suspected members of the banned Indian Mujahideen terror group, arrested by Bengaluru police in January, had planned to carry out blasts across India during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit on Republic Day, according the police charge sheet filed before a special court.
Though the team had not planned to attack Obama, the members wanted to trigger a series of blasts across India outside Delhi during Obama’s visit in order to draw global attention.
In the 1,700-page charge sheet, the police have pinned down the prime accused, Syed Ismail Afaaque (39), a homoeopathic doctor who married a Karachi-based girl to create an alibi for his visits to Pakistan to receive instructions on the blasts.
The charge sheet says that Afaaque would go to Karachi with a valid visa on the pretext of visiting his in-laws. But that was just an alibi. In reality, he would meet IM founders Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, and other extremists. He also obtained training in arms and improvised explosive devices.
He was instructed by the IM operatives in Pakistan to supply explosives to IM contacts across the country to carry out blasts. In fact the police were baffled when several IM members, who were arrested across the country, ‘confessed’ that they got the explosive consignment from Mangaluru. It was only on the arrest of four IM operatives that the mystery was solved.
The breakthrough came in January when the city police arrested Afaaque, Syed Suboor (24), Saddam Hussain (29) and Riyaz Ahmed Sayeedi (32) from different locations. A large quantity of electronic detonators and circuit boards, gelatin sticks, ammonium nitrate, and jihadi literature and posters were seized.