IM claims blast, says it’s retaliation for Babri verdict

An e-mail sent by banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen to several media houses claims the explosion is a retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Rajesh Ahuja and Aloke Tikku report. Investigators suspect Shahnawaz, founder member of IM

“Eye for an eye; the dust will never settle down”.

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Email sent by the Indian Mujahideen (IM) on September 13, 2008, the day Delhi was ripped by five synchronised bomb blasts that killed more than two dozen people.

“As we bleed, so will you seep”.

The email sent on September 19, 2010, after two Taiwanese tourists almost lost their lives outside the Delhi Jama Masjid.

“Lets feel the pain together.”

This latest email — sent on Tuesday, after the Varanasi blast — claims the explosion is a retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

The similarity in the style of writing is difficult to miss. Sources say the mail might be written by Iqbal Bhatkal as he had written the earlier mails.

“Indian Mujahideen attributes this attack to the 6th of December that will haunt your nation of world’s ‘Greatest DemoNcracy’”, says Tuesday’s 5-page email that refers to the Allahabad HC judgment on Ayodhya and the “manhandling and heckling of the Kashmiri leadership in Indian cities”.

The email — dated 6th December — also blames the Congress for its “hidden agenda” and ridicules the clean chit to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

The IM logo, pasted in the beginning of the mails, was created in July 2008 on the instructions of Bhatkal by a techie and alleged IM operative Mubeen Kadar Shaikh. Also, at the bottom, there is a signature ‘Al-Arbi’, considered to be Bhatkal’s.