NIA chooses Friday to reconstruct 2006 Malegaon blasts execution

NIA reconstructed execution of the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts on January 4, a Friday. It chose the day for two reasons. September 1, 2006, when Rajendra Choudhary, Dhan Singh, Ramji Kalsangra and Amit alias Prince did a survey of target sites, was a Friday and September 8, when the blasts were executed, was also a Friday.

Choudhary, Kalsangra and Singh, who also allegedly participated in execution of the 2008 blasts in the city, planted the bombs in 2006.

Singh was arrested at Chitrakoot in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh on December 17, 2012, two days after Choudhary was held in Ujjain district.

The two were packed in an official vehicle, sandwiched between two police jeeps, as they went about recreating the recce, execution and planting of two bombs at Hamidia Masjid near Bada Qabristan and Mushawarat Chowk.

Eyewitnesses said police stopped outside the mosque, waiting for the azaan crowd to step out. "They came minutes after the azaan, around quarter to one. The cars slowly approached the narrow stretch between the mosque and the cemetery," Maulana Abdul Bari, imam of Hamidia Masjid. He said mosque authorities were not informed of the visit.

"They (NIA) feared attack by locals. We were told of the recreation only in the evening. The two men (Choudhary and Singh) were not allowed to step out of the vehicles," Bari said.

NIA recorded details of the lone tree, 10 metres from the cemetry gate, on Iqbal Road where the blasts occurred just as people were coming out of the mosque after azaan. The vehicles then moved to Mushawarat Chowk, where Singh and Kalsangra allegedly tied an IED-stuffed bag to a cycle used in the blasts. Choudhary, meanwhile, went inside the mosque and hung a IED-stuffed second bag on a tree next to the cemetery.

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