The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will question 28-year-old Pakistani national Taseem Azim alias Larib Khan Gulab Khan in connection with the serial blasts at Malegaon on September 8 last year.

Azim was arrested by the Lucknow police Special Task Force (STF) five days after the serial blasts at Malegaon in an operation backed by the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau. During Azim’s questioning, it was revealed that he had been staying in Lucknow for the past two years and had been trained by the ISI in Karachi. He had been operating on behalf of the ISI while running a job placement agency ‘Precyze Recruitment Agency’.

Azim, termed by the STF as “young and intelligent” and a “goldmine” of information by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), also told his interrogators that in the span of two years of working for the ISI, he had visited Malegaon several times and established contact with local persons. It was also revealed that Azim had contacts in the ranks of PoK-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islami (HuJI).

“We shared this information with the Maharashtra ATS, which immediately sent a team for detailed questioning of the accused in connection with the Malegaon serial blasts,” said Senior Superintendent of Police, STF, Vijay Bhushan.

The CBI, which took over investigations into the blasts on December 21 last year (the same day as the ATS filed chargesheet against nine persons in the case), now says it will question Azim again in connection with the blasts. “We want to question him to cross-check his revelations about his Malegaon links. And as he has admitted to having links with a terrorist organisation we are hopeful of getting more information,” said an officer of the Special Investigating Team of the CBI entrusted with the investigations in the case.

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