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Darbhanga blast: NIA brings two suspects to Patna, gets 7-day custody
PATNA The two suspects arrested in Hyderabad in connection with the June 17 blast at Darbhanga railway station were on Friday brought to Patna and produced before a special court, which remanded them to seven-day custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA)
PATNA
The two suspects arrested in Hyderabad in connection with the June 17 blast at Darbhanga railway station were on Friday brought to Patna and produced before a special court, which remanded them to seven-day custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Mohammad Imran Malik and his brother Mohammad Nasir Malik, allegedly associated with terror outfit LeT, were arrested Wednesday night for their alleged involvement in the low-intensity parcel blast at Darbhanga railway station.
There was no loss of life or property in the blast.
The two have been charged with hatching a conspiracy to detonate an explosion or fire in on Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express, which carried the parcel to Darbhanga.
Before their production in the court, both were questioned for nearly two-and-a-half hours by a joint team of NIA and Bihar’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Patna.
According to an NIA official, one of the suspects had visited Pakistan and received training. NIA sources said both hailed from Shamli in Uttar Pradesh and were currently residing in a rented house in Hyderabad.
Nasir was into clothes business. Their father Mohammad Musa Khan is said to be an ex-serviceman and participated in Indo-China war in 1962.
NIA officials said Nasir had visited Pakistan in 2012 and received training from LeT handlers led by one Iqbal Kana alias Asif in fabrication of IEDs from locally available chemicals.
Kana, also a native of Kairana in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh and a wanted terrorist in India, is currently said to be in Pakistan. He was allegedly in touch with the Malik brothers, besides Haji Saleem and Kafeel Ahmad.
Meanwhile, Saleem and Kafeel, who were already taken into custody by UP Special Task Force on June 23 in connection with the Darbhanga blast, were arrested by NIA on Friday in the same case.
“The arrested accused met at the residence of Haji Saleem in February 2021 and finalized the plan of planting an IED in a moving train so casualties and extensive damage to property can be caused. Saleem is a close associate of Pakistan based LeT operative Iqbal Kana and was acting as a key intermediary between Iqbal Kana and the arrested accused. He was also involved in channelling funds sent by Iqbal kana that were used in executing the terror act,” NIA spokesperson Jaya Roy said in a statement.
Malik brothers were in frequent touch with their handler and were using internet-based texting and WhatsApp and Telegram, NIA officials said.
The Darbhanga station blast case was originally registered at Government Railway police station in Darbhanga while NIA registered a fresh case on June 24 and took up the investigation.
With agency inputs
