The Hindu : Front Page : Top HuJI activist held

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Monday, Sep 03, 2007
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Top HuJI activist held

Staff Reporter

Hamza from Hyderabad is also wanted by the Mumbai police

HYDERABAD: Investigations into the twin blasts appear to be progressing briskly with the reported detention of the most wanted person from Andhra Pradesh, Abdul Bari alias Abu Hamza, in Bangladesh. However, City Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh feigned ignorance about the arrest saying “We have no information about Hamza’s arrest.”

He is the second-in-command of Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI), a terrorist outfit in Bangladesh, while Shahid alias Bilal from Moosarambagh in Hyderabad is its South India ‘commander’.

Both Hamza and Shahid had also planned to explode an improvised explosive device (IED) near the Ganesh temple in Secunderabad in 2004 along with Moulana Naseeruddin, who leads an organisation known as Tahreek Tahfuz Shariat-e-Islami. Naseeruddin is currently in a Gujarat jail.

Involved in conspiracy

The 45-year-old Hamza from Hyderabad is also wanted by the Mumbai police for his alleged involvement in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, bomb blasts which occurred in 2002. He left for Dubai eight years ago and reportedly came in contact with a Pakistani-funded outfit in Dubai.

He allegedly conspired to create terror in the State with his associates in the old city. His name had figured in each and every significant bomb blast in the city, be it at the Saibaba temple, Dilsukhnagar, in 2002 or the twin blasts at Gokul Chat in Koti and Lumbini Park on August 25 this year.

Meanwhile, Ridwan Gazi, brother of the Bangladeshi woman, Rafsanjani, arrested on the charges of overstaying in the capital without valid documents, gave the slip to the city police in Bangalore on Sunday. The incident happened when the policemen were allegedly arguing with an auto driver over the fare!

The special police team had gone to nab Gazi (20) since he was absconding after arrest of Rafsanjani (23) a few days ago at Shivrampally. Based on her confession, the team went to Bangalore to trace Gazi at his relative’s house. Although Gazi’s role in the twin blasts was yet to be established, his face resembles the suspect’s sketch released by the police.

“We don’t know why he has been absconding ever since his sister was caught here,” admitted a senior police official.

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