On the run for 17 yrs,man held for train blasts

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force on Tuesday arrested one of the accused in the 1993 serial blasts in Howrah- and Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express trains.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force STF on Tuesday arrested one of the accused in the 1993 serial blasts in Howrah- and Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express trains. The Lucknow-based accused,Hamiduddin alias Hamid alias Saleem,has been on the run since then,carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 from the CBI.

ADG law amp; order Brij Lal said the CBI had investigated five cases related to the serial blasts in two Rajdhani Express trains Flying Queen Express and AP Express which occurred in Kanpur Uttar Pradesh,Kota Rajasthan,Valsad Gujarat and Malkajgiri Andhra Pradesh on December 5 and 6,1993.

The trial of these cases was held at a CBI court in Ajmer,Rajasthan,which awarded life sentence to 15 accused. However,four accused,including Hamid,had been absconding,the ADG said.

Brij Lal said Hamid,a native of Pul Ghulam Hussain locality in Chowk,revealed that he had escaped to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in January 1994 after triggering off the blasts. He,however,was deported to Mumbai on May 18,1995,as his visa expired in the same month.

STF SSP Naveen Arora said Hamid was an artisan and used to earn through embroidery trade. His looks were entirely different from his photograph collected by the CBI 16 years ago. He had been using a wig since 2001.

On the conspiracy behind the blasts,Hamid told STF officials that he had come in contact with Irfan Ahmed of Bahraich in 1992 who used to run a florist shop near his native place in Chowk. Irfan took him to the house of Dr Jamal Alvi in the same area where he met Mohammad Tufail of Hardoi,Kari of Basti district,Mohammad Afaque Khan of Rajajipuram Colony,Lucknow and Dr Habib Khan of Rae Bareli.

The ADG said in November 1993,Dr Jalees Ansari,the chief of a terror outfit,visited Dr Alvis place and the plan for planting bombs in different trains was hatched. Dr Alvi,Irfan and Hamid left for Kanpur on December 5,1993 carrying two bags which contained timer devices in plastic boxes.

Story continues below this ad

Hamid confessed that they placed the bombs in Howrah-bound Rajdhani Express at 10 pm at the Kanpur station and another bomb in Delhi-bound Rajdhani at 5 am.

The STF SSP said both the bombs exploded within half-an-hour after the trains left the Kanpur station. The cases in this connection were lodged with the Government Railway Police,Kanpur.

Later,Dr Jalees Ansari,Dr Alvi and others were also arrested by the CBI.