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IISc. attack: four more named

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: The Bangalore police have stepped up efforts to trace the Pakistani militant, Abu Hamza, who allegedly carried out the attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) on December 28, 2005, and four others who were connected with the strike.

On the basis of the information provided by Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Sabahuddin, who is an accused in the case, the police are looking for his two Pakistani handlers and the two men from Kashmir who supplied arms to carry out the attack.

However, the police believe that tracking Sabahuddin’s handlers, Muzammil and Abdul Aziz, will be difficult as they are suspected to be in Pakistan.

Joint Commissioner (Crime) Gopal B. Hosur told presspersons here on Saturday that the police would seek Interpol assistance to track Hamza, who is also said to be in Pakistan. Hamza, who had escaped to Pakistan after the IISc. attack, later returned to India and planned an attack in Kashmir where he was shot in the legs by paramilitary forces. Despite injuries, he managed to return to Pakistan, Mr. Hosur said.

Sources in the police told The Hindu that Muzammil and Aziz, along with the two Kashmiris, would be named accused in the case registered in the Sadashivanagar police station. The police will submit a report to the jurisdictional court with a request to name the four men accused.

Through a body warrant, the Bangalore police recently obtained the custody of Sabahuddin, who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Rampur in that State.

According to the police, Sabahuddin, a native of Bihar, came in contact with terrorist groups while he was studying in the Aligarh Muslim University in 2002. Later he underwent arms training at Lashkar-e-Taiba camps in Pakistan.

LeT training

After completing his training at the LeT camps, his handlers sent him to Bangalore to carry out the attacks. Sabahuddin came to Bangalore in 2004 and tried to get an admission in a college here.

As the admission process had ended and his plan did not materialise. He continued to stay in Bangalore and left for Bangladesh as ordered by Muzammil. Sabahuddin met Abdul Aziz there and was told to return to Bangalore to launch an operation. He was also instructed to buy a mobile phone for communication, collect weapons from Kashmir and escort the fidayeen to Bangalore, the police said.

Subsequently, Sabahuddin came to Bangalore in 2005 and joined a college in Kempapura in Hebbal to pursue a BBM course, renting a room in the same area. As instructed by Aziz, he brought the weapons from Kashmir in October 2005.

In December 2005, he went to Kathmandu to escort Abu Hamza. The duo came to Bangalore via Patna and Kolkata, using fake names.

The escape

Though they had planned to carry out attacks at four different places in Bangalore, it did not work out and they decided to target just IISc. After the attack — which killed a visiting Delhi professor and injured six — the two escaped through different routes and met in Varanasi.

Later, Hamza went to Pakistan and Sabahuddin to Nepal where he was made the LeT operational chief in that country, Mr. Hosur said.

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