As part of the investigations into the still unsolved Indian Institute of Science (IISc) terror attack, the Bangalore Police are exploring the links of seven people arrested in connection with the Varanasi blasts.

Bangalore Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh is in UP to quiz the accused in the Varanasi blasts. Of particular interest to the Bangalore Police is the link between the Varanasi accused and Bangladesh-based wings of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami and the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist outfits. These links could have a bearing on the IISc case, sources said. The Bangalore Police are exploring a theory that the December 28, 2005, IISc attack, in which a retired Delhi University mathematics professor was killed, was carried out by terrorists based in Bangladesh with links to the HuJI and the JeM, while being funded, supported by the LeT.

The Huji and JeM link emerged in the Varanasi case when one of the main accused Mohammed Walliullah, a HuJI operative, revealed that the blasts were executed under the instructions of Asadullah, a Bangladesh-based HuJI commander with JeM links.

The Bangalore police through IB inputs, interrogation reports of arrested Bangladesh-based terrorists and investigations have surmised that Shahid, a Hyderabad native, based in Bangladesh and linked to the HuJI, JeM played a key role in the IISc attack. Shahid, also accused in a Hyderabad suicide bomb blast case is currently the key suspect in the IISc attack case. The modus operandi in the Hyderabad case and the Varanasi blast case has similarities to the extent that both attacks seem to have involved Indian and Bangladeshi terrorists linked to the HuJI or the JeM.

... contd.