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Journalism of Courage
Sheikh Lal Baba Mohammed Hussain Farid alias Bilal,the 27-year-old who was arrested last week for being an operative of a Nashik terror cell,had allegedly surveyed security establishments including the Maharashtra Police Academy,the Nashik Police Commissionerate and Army Cantonment in Deolali.
ATS officials said that Bilal,on the instructions of Himayat Baig who was also arrested last week in connection with the Pune German Bakery blast,had photographed these targets. Bilal,who hails from Solapur,allegedly crossed into the country through Bangladesh after his training in Pakistan in May 2010. He is said to have been given the new operation soon after by Baig.
In 2008,the Indian Mujahideen had also listed security establishments and police commissionerates as their targets. Baig,who had found employment in shift jobs as a computer numerical lithe machine operator in two factories in Satpur,photographed government buildings in Nashik.
While Bilal was caught with 700 grams of RDX,a separate search of Baig and his computer laboratory yielded 1.2 kg RDX and four detonators.
ATS sources claimed that Baig was given Rs 50,000 for planting the IED in German Bakery on February 13. The money,the sources said,was given to him by co-conspirators Mohammed Ahmed Zarar Sidibappa and Mohsin Chaudhary met him outside Pune. This was also the first time that the three met after the blast.
The ATS,meanwhile,has frozen a bank account belonging to a person in Udgir who had given his consent to Baig to operate it as his own.
The ATS found that there were several transactions involving good amounts over a period of time.
