One of India’s most wanted terrorists, Abdul Shahed alias Shahed Bilal, and his brother Abdul Samad — both Hyderabad natives — were shot dead in Karachi by an unknown assassin soon after the August 25 twin blasts in Hyderabad. This information came out during a series of revelations by three alleged terror operatives who were functioning out of Karnataka’s Hubli-Dharwad and Davangere region.

Raziuddin Nasir, 21, son of cleric Maulana Naseeruddin who is linked to the murder conspiracy of former Gujarat BJP MLA Haren Pandya, told various sets of interrogators following his arrest in Davangere on January 11 that Bilal and Samad were dead. Senior security officials in Karnataka said this information was a confirmation of facts already available with Indian security agencies.

Bilal has been linked to several acts of terrorism in southern India, including the October 2005 Hyderabad police task force office blast, the December 2005 Bangalore Indian Institute of Science attack, the May 18, 2007 Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts and the August 25, 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts case.

Samad, one of Bilal’s six brothers, was known to be living in Saudi Arabia and was linked as a possible financer of his activities. Nasir claims to have been in touch with Bilal until he was killed last year. He has provided investigators with the Pakistan telephone numbers he claimed to have used to communicate with him.

Nasir was arrested by the Davangere police, along with a friend Asadullah Abubacker, in a case of pure chance on January 11, after two alert constables noticed they were carrying six sets of fake number plates when they fell off a motorcycle. Further investigations revealed possible terrorism links including Nasir’s connection to Maulana Naseeruddin and also lead the police to an associate Mohammed Asif, a final year medical student at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences.

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