Two days after Batla,IM men dialled Headley

Both Shahnawaz and Asadullah carry a reward of Rs 1 lakh,and are wanted by Delhi Police for their involvement in the September 13,2008 serial blasts in the Capital.

Uttar Pradesh police first came across the cellphone number while investigating the Azamgarh network of the IM after the Batla House shootout. According to police,the number had been obtained in Azamgarh by faking an identity. Shahnawaz’s brother Mohammad Saif,who was held during the Batla House shootout,later told police that the number was used either by his brother,or by Asadullah.

Asadullah’s father,Dr Javed,is an orthopaedic surgeon in Azamgarh and contested the last Lok Sabha election as a candidate of the Ulema Council.

Sources said that Headley’s call details show he received two calls from this number. The calls were made from Lucknow two days after the Batla House incident. Until then,Saif had not cracked under interrogation. By the time Saif spilled the beans,Shahnawaz,who had been working at the Mayo Hospital in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar,had disappeared.

The ATS has information that Shahnawaz is now in Nepal and Asadullah in Saudi Arabia. Since Headley was “running an immigration service” from Mumbai,it is suspected that he may have helped the two leave India. The Mumbai police are already investigating Headley’s alleged role in helping Rahil Sheikh,fund-raiser for the Mumbai train blasts of 2006,escape to London.

Joint teams of Delhi Police and the UP ATS raided Azamgarh after the Batla House incident and discovered that Asadullah had left early morning on September 20. Dr Shahnawaz last did duty at Mayo Hospital on September 21 and then disappeared.

Arrested IM men reportedly told their interrogators that Shahnawaz and Arif Badr,also from Azamgarh,were recruited into IM by Sadiq Sheikh who had trained in Pakistan. He arranged to send both to Pakistan via Dubai and they were trained at a Lashkar camp,sources said.

Shahnawaz was the IM second-in-command in India after Sadiq. Initially,only these two men were authorised to contact organisation head Amir Raza Khan,the sources said. After the Batla House incident,Sadiq was arrested along with four associates in Mumbai. Asadullah was recruited into IM by Atif who,along with Chhota Sajid,was killed at Batla House. It is alleged that Asadullah planted the bomb at Gaffar Market in Delhi on September 13,2008.

UP Addl DG (Law & Order) Brij Lal said: “We are in touch with intelligence agencies regarding developments in the ongoing investigation into Headley’s India links. We have gone through records of foreigners visiting UP in the last two years but have not come across the name of David Coleman Headley or Daood Gilani.”