Four suspected ISI agents held

The city Police Commissioner R P Singh, in a release, said the police arrested 48-year-old Jaffer Hussain, resident of Golconda area. He had concealed the explosives supplied by a Pakistani national Junaid, who was arrested along with two other Pakistani nationals last week.

Another accused Mohammed Omar 50, also a resident of Golconda, who gave his premises to Junaid on a monthly rent of Rs 1,000 and which was being used for dumping explosives, was arrested. A bag containing three bottles of chemicals, ammunition, 30 cartridges, a kg of RDX, a pistol and mortar was seized fromhim.

Two others 8211; Khalid Buvajeer, resident of Barkas and Abdul Raoof of Errakunta 8211; who were responsible for giving shelter to other Pakistani nationals were also arrested. All the four accused were remanded to judicial custody.

Meanwhile, the recent arrest of three ISI agents including Mohd Ishtayaq and the seizure of RDX from them seems to be only the tip of an iceberg as investigating agencies are unravelling a much deeper conspiracy.

As the probe is progressing, evidence appears to be building up over the possible links between ISI agents and several city-based fundamentalist organisations and even political parties.

With Ishtayaq himself confessing that he met Shaik Mahboob Ali, chief of Darzgah-Jehad-o-Shehadat DJS, which had been training Muslim youth in 8220;self-defence8221;, the police are now seriously considering imposing a ban on DJS.

8220;We are looking for material evidence against DJS before taking a decision,8221; a senior official of the Intelligence wing told The IndianExpress.

One of the several special teams formed to carry out the investigation reportedly seized eight kg RDX from a house in Golconda fort area a couple of days ago and arrested two youths. Personnel of the task force, guards and Greyhounds took part in the raid, conducted in the small hours of Sunday.

Ishtayaq was arrested, with the assistance of Delhi police, on July 1. Subsequently three more persons including two ISI agents were arrested and 12 kg RDX, three Chinese-made pistols, remote control devices and wireless sets besides huge quantity of ammunition were seized from them. The ISI agents disclosed to the police that they had conspired to trigger blasts in Hyderabad and create communal disturbances.

However, the point of concern was that the police could seize only a portion of the plastic explosive smuggled into Hyderabad and are still trying to locate the remaining quantity.

8220;We are yet to establish whether the ISI agents and their followers transported the RDX out of Hyderabad ornot. We are almost groping in the dark and working out on slender clues we are chancing upon,8221; a police official said. The officer did not rule out the possibility of some ISI agents and their followers having escaped from Hyderabad. 8220;They may have shelters in places like Nizamabad, Warangal, Mahboobnagar and Nalgonda.