Talking to reporters here, Chidambaram, when asked if there had been a breakthrough in either of the two cases, replied, “Well that depends on what you call a breakthrough.... If you are asking are there any promising leads, the answer is yes. If you are asking whether any one has been confirmed to be an accused, the answer is no, not yet.”
While there have been no arrests in the Mumbai blast case, in Delhi the investigators have arrested two persons from Kisthwar in Jammu and Kashmir for sending an email after the blast. The email claimed that the blast was the handiwork on the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami (HuJI).
Referring to the September 7 blast outside the Delhi High Court which left 15 people dead and scores injured, Chidambaram said, “Having regard to the gravity of the offence, the Centre decided to entrust the investigation of the case to the NIA.”
To a question about the US referring to the ISI’s links with the terrorist groups, including the Haqqani group, Chidambaram said he was not surprised that the US had now discovered the links. “We are not surprised that US lately discovered ISI’s link with a number of other terrorist groups. We always knew that ISI has links with terrorist groups,” he said.
The relations between US and Pakistan have come under strain recently after the US military and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said that Haqqani network is closely linked to and sometimes acts as an agent for Pakistan’s ISI.
On the presence of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim wanted in India in Pakistan, Chidambaram said India even knew about the place he was living in Pakistan. “...we know where he is but surely no one is allowing, no one will allow me to go to the place and point out his house,” Chidambaram said.
NIA quizzes Hizbul man
The NIA on Friday quizzed a Hizbul Mujahideen operative in the Kot Balwal jail here in connection with the September 7 bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court. Identifying the jailed Hizbul operative as Azhar Ali of Paddar in Kishtwar district, sources said NIA officials questioned him about sleeper cells of HuJI and Hizbul Mujahideen in the hilly district and elsewhere in the country, especially in the national capital. He was arrested last year for motivating local youths to join Hizbul ranks.