A week after terrorists Ajmal Ameer Kasab and Abu Dera Ismael Khan wreaked havoc by firing indiscriminately inside Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station, a bag containing 8 kg explosives believed to be RDX was found inside the station during a check of unclaimed baggage. “A lot of baggage and belongings of passengers that were left by them in the station were cleared and kept in a separate area. Over the week, much of it was claimed by people. Today, while sifting through the unclaimed baggage, the police found a bag containing RDX in two packets of 4 kg each. No timer was, however, recovered,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria.The bag had been lying at the unclaimed baggage section of the Government Railway Police (GRP) station. It had a metal container, inside which there was a smaller container with black explosives and ball bearings inside.Incidentally, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had made a visit to the CST station barely minutes after the explosives was recovered. Additional Director General of Police (Railways) K P Raghuvanshi, who is holding additional charge of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), said the bomb was in one of the unclaimed bags lying at CST since last Wednesday. He confirmed that the Mumbai Police Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad had been called in.Meanwhile, from Kasab’s interrogation, the police have been able to get some answers about the two explosions that had taken place inside taxis at Dockyard Road and Vile Parle. “Kasab told us that he and Khan had planted the bomb that exploded at Dockyard Road, while the one at Vile Parle was planted by the terrorists who were holed up in Nariman House. The bombs were planted below the driver’s seat and the motive was to create as much panic and devastation as possible,” informed Maria.With the Mumbai Police finding that the terrorists had taken five taxis from Badhwar Park and that the explosions took place in two of them, investigations are on to account for the other three taxis. “Our investigations are on in this regard. We have contacted the taxi union for help on this,” said Maria. According to the police, the two explosive devices recovered by the police from the front of Yacht Club and Café Leopold were set to explode four hours and 57 minutes from the time they were armed. “The idea of planting them around Taj Mahal hotel might have been to cause casualties when police surrounded the building,” said Maria.Another such explosive device was detonated by the police inside Oberoi Hotel. They have also recovered several mobile phones and SIM cards.The Crime Branch also revealed more details about Kasab. “He comes from Faridkot village and was educated till the fourth standard. He moved from his village to stay with his elder brother in Lahore and work as a casual labourer,” said Maria. “His brother worked on a farm. His father Mohammed Ameer (46) is a hawker and mother Noor Elahi (34) a housewife. He also has a younger brother and two sisters, one of whom is older than him. Kasab was promised that his family would be paid 1.5 lakh Pakistani rupees if he died in the terror strikes,” he added.Maria said it was during Kasab’s interrogation that the police got to know of the existence of Kuber, the trawler in which the terrorists had travelled till reaching four nautical miles from the Mumbai coast. The owner of Kuber, Vinod Masani, was scheduled to be brought to the city by Crime Branch officials for questioning. (With inputs from Prashant Rangnekar)
