HuJI man had plans to bomb Delhi markets

Mohammad Iqbal, wanted for his role in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast and the 2006 Varanasi blasts, was picked up by a Delhi Police special cell team, HT reports.

A key militant of the Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI), sent to Delhi to execute serial blasts in busy marketplaces, has been arrested, police said on Thursday.

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Mohammad Iqbal alias Abdur Rehman, wanted for his role in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast and the 2006 Varanasi blasts, was picked up by a Delhi Police special cell team minutes after he got down from a train from Howrah late Wednesday.

Senior police officers said they were also investigating his possible involvement in last week’s Jaipur blasts that killed 66 people.

Iqbal told police that 10 kg of RDX had been smuggled into Delhi in 2005. Out of this consignment, he got three kg of RDX last year and had hid it near a madrasa in west Delhi’s Janakpuri. Following this revelation, the police recovered the RDX, a timer and five detonators from near the madrasa on Thursday. Police said the rest of the RDX could still be in the city. “We do not know where the rest of the explosives are,” said Karnal Singh, Joint Commissioner, Special Cell.

The Uttar Pradesh police said they would seek the militant’s custody for the Varanasi blasts that killed around 30 people and the Samjhauta blasts that killed 68. “He is a big catch,” said Amitabh Yash, SSP, Special Task Force, UP.