Arrests in Gujarat reveal new evidence linking plotters to 7/11, Samjhauta too

As the Gujarat police and Central agencies investigate SIMI’s national network following the arrests last week...

As the Gujarat police and Central agencies investigate SIMI’s national network following the arrests last week, they are finding leads that could link the plotters of the July 26 serial blasts in Ahmedabad to the Mumbai train blasts in 2006 and even the Samjhauta Express explosions the next year.

Given that SIMI is suspected to be behind the Jaipur and the UP court blasts as well, the picture emerging is of a sprawling network of operatives spread across several states whose paths intersect several times.

Sources said SIMI’s Sajid Mansuri, one of those arrested in Gujarat, has provided crucial inputs to the Mumbai train blasts probe and has named Karnataka dentist Mohammed Salim Honali as the man proficient in liquid-bomb technology using hydrogen peroxide.

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Mansuri is said to have told his interrogators that Honali taught SIMI cadres how to make liquid bombs at a camp in Dharwad, Karnataka. Significantly, the devices used in the February 18, 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts had bottles with liquid hydrogen peroxide and gelatin sticks.

Honali, 31, arrested last Thursday, has told the Gujarat police that he was a close associate of Mansuri and Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, SIMI technical chief, and knew how to make liquid bombs.

Tauqeer is the link to the Mumbai train blasts case in which the Maharashtra police chargesheeted SIMI general secretary Ehtesham Qureshi and local LeT chief Faisal Sheikh. It now transpires that they also interrogated Tauqeer and Mansuri. Tauqeer is now on the run. The Gujarat Police is waiting for the arrival of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and his associates from Madhya Pradesh today. Nagori’s younger brother Kamuruddin is with the Gujarat police since August 15 and is said to have admitted to handling logistics and communication through three cyber-cafes in Indore.