Mumbai bus blast probe points to Lashkar hand

Hamza’s identity was disclosed during interrogation of Imran Rehman Khan alias Zuber alias Sunny.

The latter was deported to India from Dubai on Thursday. Khan told authorities that he was accosted by Hamza in one of the religious establishments in Saudi Arabia. He was also paid an amount of Rs 2 lakh, he said.

Video clippings of the demolition of religious sites in Palestine and Ayodhya along with Gujarat riot pictures were shown to influence Khan, police said. Khan, 32, a school dropout from Chennai, was soon part of the conspiracy.

Sources also said Hamza could have masterminded the blast that rocked some states in South, particularly in Tamil Nadu.

This is evident from the fact that some documents received from suspects in the Coimbatore blast were traced to operatives in Aurangabad.

Subsequent investigations revealed that members of the banned SIMI outfit had undergone training under Azam Gauri, a key LeT functionary.

However, Gauri was killed in an encounter last year. Khan’s associate Mohammed Imran too was shot dead in another operation near Hyderabad last year.