Clues the day after: Bomb that did not go off, men in dark glasses

They are also trying to find out if there is any link between e-mail writer guru_alhindi and his namesake to whom the HUJI terrorist Jalaluddin Mullah aka Babu Bhai had delivered 20 kg of RDX on the eve of the Diwali blasts in Delhi in 2005. Babu Bhai was arrested by UP STF last June.

While the Delhi police removed all the seven computers from the Laxmi Nagar cyber café before the UP STF team could reach there, the latter is seeking help from the American Embassy in Delhi to trace the electronic signatures of the mail.

Investigators are now revisiting the interrogation reports of Babu Bhai in a bid to trace Guru alias Rocky, who got the delivery of 20 kg RDX from the HUJI terrorist in August-September 2005 near Jama Masjid. Babu Bhai’s interrogation report says that he landed in Delhi 10 days before Ramzan in 2005 and stayed at the house of his friend Qadir at Turkman Gate.

Babu Bhai had planned to meet Guru this June but was picked up by the UP STF before the meeting. The West Bengal-born terrorist also had delivered 40 kg of RDX to one

“ Raju” outside Varanasi station in early 2004. According to the interrogation reports, Raju had come from either Azamgarh or Ghazipur to pick up the explosives.

While investigators are still to come up with firm clues on the serial blasts, there are leads to suggest that the crime was planned by Bangladesh-based HUJI operatives and executed by a local jehadi module. It is in this context that the UP police is looking at Mohammed Tufail Hussaini, whose module has been active for the past year.

Investigators haven’t had much luck in Delhi so far as the cyber café in Laxmi Nagar did not maintain a register for users. “It’s been confirmed that guru_alhindi@yahoo.com , the address from which the mail that foretold the blasts was sent, was created at this cyber café and the same person visited the café on November 22 and 23,” said a source.

The source added that he stayed there for almost half an hour on Friday and left after paying Rs 10.

The owner Subhash Satija, sources say, made an entry in the register only after he got a call from the Uttar Pradesh STF (Special Task Force). Satija, his brother Manish and caretaker of the café, Chandan, were today interrogated by intelligence agencies and Delhi Police’s Special Cell. Officials say that they are making the sketch of suspect, in his early ‘20s, based on the description given by Chandan.

The Lucknow police have already made sketches of the suspects on the basis of information given by local residents Miraj and Sunny Vishwkarma. Miraj works at a bicycle shop on Latouche Road, and Sunny at a cycle stand near the blast site.

Both of them said that the men in dark glasses kept saying that they were in a hurry. Sunny told The Indian Express that on Friday around 12.25 pm, a 28-year-old, strongly built youth came to his cycle stand. He asked for a parking ticket. There was a bag on the cycle handle. “He was in a hurry so I did not speak much to him. He said thrice that he was in a hurry,” said Sunny.

After the blast, when no one came to collect the bicycle, Sunny took the bag to the police who found a bomb inside it and defused it. The owner of the bicycle shop Sain Agencies, Sushil Gulati, claimed that a middle-aged man had visited his shop on Friday around noon and purchased a bicycle for Rs 1850. He too wore sunglasses and was in a hurry. “He kept looking at his watch and saying he was in a hurry,” says Meraj, the salesman.

While one of the bicycles used in Lucknow was bought just an hour before the blast, the one used in the Faizabad court was purchased from Universal Trading shop in the town on November 21.

The bicycle was deposited at the Faizabad Railway Station on the same day. “One person had deposited the bicycle on November 21 and took it back on November 23. My employee is assisting the police in the investigation,” says Bintu Singh, the contractor who runs the Railway bicycle stand in Faizabad.

Faizabad range DIG PP Srivastava said: “While one person purchased the vehicle, another person parked it at the station on the same day. Naturally, they were two people, as one person can’t take two bicycles to the blast site,” he said.

Although the Varanasi police have identified the shop, they have not disclosed any details. Sources say that too was bought on November 21. An old bicycle and new one each were used for the blasts in Faizabad and Lucknow. Both the bicycles used in Varanasi were new.

Incidentally, the bombs that did not go off were kept on new bicycles in Lucknow and Faizabad. “We found that the battery, used for the timer device, got dislocated and thus the bomb did not explode,” a source said.

The investigators say the blasts were meticulously planned. The bomb that led to the minor explosion in Faizabad court was packed like a parcel and had the name, Haji Naseer Ahemad, Riyad, written on it.

(Reported by Shishir Gupta and Neeraj Chauhan in Delhi and Sanjay Singh and Manish Sahu in Lucknow)

Another mail, fresh threat

NEW DELHI: Another mail was sent today to a TV channel at 10.16 am threatening to attack the Pakistani cricket team and carry out a series of explosions at several places in India. Sources said that this email ID, guru_boys2000@yahoo.com, was generated outside Delhi. The name Guru is common to the mails sent yesterday and today.

• The Delhi police have strengthened the security for Pakistani team as a countrywide alert has been sounded by the Union Home Ministry against terror strikes. The email said, “Don’t think it’s a joke. We will attack you if you play test match with India. Go back to your country”.

• The mail says KK Nagar in Chennai will be targeted on November 30, Ghaziabad on December 10, Delhi on December 25 and Kolkata on December 28.