The UP Special Task Force (STF) today claimed the March 7 Varanasi blasts were carried out by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI) of Bangladesh which has links to Pakistan’s Jaish-e-Mohammed terror organisation.

The STF arrested six persons including Waliullah, the Imam of a mosque in Phoolpur near Allahabad. The STF said three others from Bangladesh—Bashir, Mustafeez and Zakariya—who planted the bombs were still at large.

The STF described Waliullah as the HuJI area commander for eastern UP. While the police claimed he had given them “vital information” on the Delhi blasts last October and another on the Shramjeevi Express last July, Waliullah told reporters that one of the three Bangladeshis was involved in the Delhi blast. “Ek usme se tha (one of them was there),” he said.

The five arrested with Waliullah, the STF said, were sent to Pakistan for training via Bangladesh.

STF IG Jagmohan Yadav said the plan for the Varanasi blasts was given final shape on the night of February 23-24. “Waliullah had gone to Mau Ayama near Allahabad for a religious gathering, Tabligh Jamaat Ijtima. He received a message there from HuJI chief Asadullah that three persons were being sent to carry out strikes,” Yadav said. The three Bangladeshi youths reached Phoolpur on March 3 and left for Varanasi on March 7, the STF said.