13/7 probe goes transnational

A year after the July 13, 2011 blasts, the probe led by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has gone transnational as the key wanted accused are believed to be operating from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Nepal and Pakistan.

A year after the July 13, 2011 blasts, the probe led by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has gone transnational as the key wanted accused are believed to be operating from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Nepal and Pakistan.

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Police sources said central agencies are keeping a close watch on some persons in Dubai for their alleged role in financing terrorist group Indian Mujahideen (IM), while Nepal has come under the radar after reports emerged that IM operatives have got together with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to set up a base there.

ATS has passed on information to central agencies about persons who operate and actively finance IM from Saudi Arabia, added police sources. The agency, which arrested five persons for their alleged role in the blasts, now wants to arrest key IM operatives in Riyaz Bhatkal, Ahmad Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal, Waqas Ibrahim Saad and Danish alias Adil alias Tabrez.

The agency had filed a voluminous 4,788 page charge sheet in the 13/7 Mumbai serial blasts in a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in May 2012.

ATS sleuths are also keeping a close watch on Muzzafar Kola, who currently resides in Bhatkal town in Karnataka, and his associates in Dubai. Kola and his associates, according to ATS, financed the blasts through the hawala route. Hawala is an underground banking system based on trust whereby money can be made available internationally without actually moving it or leaving a record of the transaction; terrorists are known to make extensive use of hawala". ATS sources said Kola channelled the money through his hawala network using his firm Muzaffar Kola Enterprises LLC in Dubai as the front.

Investigations stretched to these countries after the arrest of a key Indian Mujahideen operative Haroon Rashid Abdul Hamid Naik in August last year. Sustained investigations had revealed that Kola had delivered the money to Pathrija at the behest of Haroon, who was arrested with counterfeit currency in August, 2011.

ATS sources said Kola’s passport has been confiscated to ensure he does not travel outside the country. Soon after the blasts, the ATS put together 20 teams to investigate the case, of which four teams, each consisting of two officers and six men painstakingly scanned the 3 to 4 kilometre radius of each blast site collecting CCTV images and checking each house in the area.

The accused who planted the bombs were identified after a period of 29 days.