Doctor suspected to be behind IM attacks

While many of their members are now behind bars,the Indian Mujahideen is still believed to have many active modules left.

While many of their members are now behind bars,the Indian Mujahideen,which is suspected to be behind the Varanasi blast earlier this week,is still believed to have many active modules left. One senior operative of the outfit who is yet to be arrested is Dr Mohammad Shahnawaz,wanted by at least six police departments in the country. His name has again cropped up in connection with the Varanasi blast.

Shahnawaz,a medical practitioner in his late twenties,is also suspected to have played a crucial role in the 2008 blasts in Delhi,Jaipur and Ahmedabad as well as the blasts in Uttar Pradesh courts a year earlier. It is believed that after the Batla House encounter in Delhi,Shahnawaz fled to Dubai with other wanted IM members Junaid,Khalid,Bada Sajid,Abu Rashid and Iqbal Bhatkal. He has been operating from there since then,say sources. Shahnawaz,whose brother Mohammad Saif was arrested in connection with the Delhi blast,is said to be looking after the groups logistics and supply of explosives. Officials say the first attacks he carried out were the blasts in the courts in Lucknow,Varanasi and Faizabad in November 2007.

This was followed by serial blasts in Jaipur,Bangalore,Ahmedabad and Delhi in the following year. Shahnawaz is also suspected to be behind the blast in Punes German Bakery in February this year.

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About 30 IM members have been arrested so far. Among those who have been arrested are: Mohammad Saif,Saqib Nisar,Sadiq,Zia,Hakim,Salman,Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy,Shehzad. Sources say several young members of the IM are hiding in Mumbai,Delhi,Ahmedabad and small towns of Uttar Pradesh and South India,and are being controlled from Dubai by Riyaz Bhatkal and Shahnawaz.

Meanwhile,no headway in Jama Masjid attack

More than two months after the firing incident at Delhis Jama Masjid,in which two Taiwanese tourists were injured,and for which the IM claimed responsibility in an email,the police have not made much headway in their investigations into the case. The two suspects,who came on a motorcycle and fired 11 rounds using a 9 mm pistol,have not been traced yet. Nor has the bike used in the attack on September 19 been found. The firing was followed by a crude explosion in a car parked outside Gate 3 of Jama Masjid. The police had even visited Mumbai from where a Tata Photon card,used in sending the email after the attack,was purchased.

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Indian Mujahideen

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