2 more held in Patna blasts case,NIA to take over probe

Nitish met Shinde and briefed him on the law-and-order situation in the state.

Two more persons were reported to have been arrested in the Patna blasts case,even as the National Investigation Agency NIA gets set to take over the probe.

According to Bihar Police sources,Tabish Niyaz alias Arshad,25,was picked up from his village of Alaula under Kalyanpur police station in East Champaran on Tuesday night. In Jharkhand,the NIA is reported to have arrested Uzair Ahmad,39,a resident of Doranda,Ranchi.

Niyaz,who stayed with his uncle in Sultanganj area of Patna,is alleged to have been the local contact,and is reported to have done a recce of Gandhi Maidan and Patna railway station.

Before the blasts,he reportedly left for his village,handing over the operations to the six accused Imtiaz Ansari,Tariq alias Enul,Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu said to be an aide of arrested Indian Mujahideen leader Yasin Bhatkal and suspected to be the key conspirator,Haider,Taufiq and Niman. Ansari and Tariq have since been caught.

According to sources,Niyaz,a psychology graduate from a Ranchi college,claimed that Akhtar and Ansari had asked him to wait in his village and help the others escape to Nepal,which is about 90 kilometres from his village,after the blasts.

Ansari,who is reported to have stayed in Patna on October 10-11,is alleged to have offered Rs 10,000 each to some local youth for their support. It is,however,not clear if the local youth helped in planting the bombs at Gandhi Maidan.

Meanwhile,Ahmad was produced before a court in Ranchi,before being sent to Patna for further questioning. We are told by the NIA that Ahmad used to finance the operations run by Haider,who also stayed in the same area, said IG,Ranchi Zone,M S Bhatiya. Ahmad,who has a diploma from the Ranchi polytechnic college,worked as an electrician.

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Meanwhile,Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in the capital on Wednesday. We have got several leads. The investigation is going on. Since the Bihar Police does not have a database of terrorists,we have decided to hand over the case to the NIA following a recommendation of the state DGP, said Nitish.

NIA sources said many lives were saved because the bombs were not fitted properly. In several live bombs that were defused,the timer devices were fitted wrongly.