In a small library in Beed,Ansari and mates rehearsed lessons in terror

“Investigations have revealed that these youths,radicalised in the years following the Gujarat riots,came together around 2005. They were well educated. Ansari,Mirza Himayat Baig and Fayaz Kagzi have been chargesheeted in the German Bakery case,and Amir Shakeel,who is in jail,in the Aurangabad case,” an ATS officer said.

Ansari has an MA degree and has completed an electrician’s course; Kagzi has a degree in food technology. The library that they set up was in a small room near a mosque,where the youths met.

“We believe that they underwent indoctrination here. The names of Ansari and Shakeel surfaced after the ATS seized a large quantity of RDX,AK-47 rifles and ammunition from a Tata Sumo on May 9,2006. More explosives,arms and ammunition from the same lot was found three days later near Nashik,” the officer said.

The ATS is learnt to have pictures of Ansari,Kagzi and Baig together in the Beed library. “Along with the pictures,we seized jehadi literature. They are from the time when these men were members of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Ansari is thought to have been present at a meeting in Colombo where the plot to bomb German Bakery was hatched,” the officer said.

The ATS is yet to receive an official communication on Ansari’s arrest. ATS DIG Sanjeev Latkar said,“Zabiuddin is wanted in both the Bakery blast and (Aurangabad) arms haul cases. We will definitely seek his custody after his custody with Delhi Police is over. We have so far not got any communication from investigating agencies in Delhi.” Whatever the ATS has come to know has been through newspaper reports,another officer said.