Sleuths seek more info on local support

Investigation agencies probing the Hyderabad twin blasts are mining information on the links between an alleged LeT terror module and an Indian Mujahideen group

Investigation agencies probing the Hyderabad twin blasts are mining information on the links between an alleged LeT terror module and an Indian Mujahideen group to find if anyone of them had given logistical support for the attack. This is being done despite the fact that usually compromised links are rarely used for operations.

While the LeT module that was operating in Bangalore,Hubli,Hyderabad and Nanded,was nabbed by the Bangalore Police in August-September 2012,the IM group involving Sayed Maqbool,Imran Khan and Asad Khan was busted by the Delhi police in October 2012.

Investigations have revealed that over the first half of 2012,Obaid ur Rehman,a 22-year-old final year computer applications degree student from Hyderabad,had come in close contact with the three alleged IM members said to have done a recce of Hyderabad last July.

Investigators have found that Rehman had travelled to Nanded and Aurangabad with Asad Khan. He had also visited a house in Hyderabad believed to have been used by the alleged IM operatives for their recce.

The links between the two groups emerged in October 2012 after the Delhi Police arrested alleged IM operatives in connection with the August 2012 Pune blasts. Examination of the call records of Sayed Maqbool revealed the contact number Mohammed Akram,24,of Nanded who was among 15 youths arrested by the Bangalore Police for being part of the LeT linked module that was planning to attack right wing leaders.

Akram had returned from a year-long stay in Saudi Arabia and was introduced to Maqbool by Rehman under the aegis of a larger group identified as the defunct Indian Muslim Mohammadin Mujahidin.

From our probe of Rehman we learned that he was meant to be recruited into the IM for operations but was dropped because he was a shaky individual. The only link to the IM that emerged in the probe was the link to Maqbool who was preferred to carry out a recce, sources in the Bangalore police said.

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Sources in Andhra Pradesh police said the IM link of those arrested in Bangalore emerged only after the Delhi Police probe. Till then there was no IM link for the group. So we did not question Rehman at length last year, a source said.

The IM ia known to prefer its own cadre for operations while using local assistance only for secondary support. We are trying to verify who else was in these two separately arrested groups,someone we may have missed who could be a source of local support, Andhra Pradesh police sources said.

Sleuths are also looking for a man by the fake name Raju Bhai. He has been identified by the Delhi Police special cell as the financier of the Pune blasts. Sources say there is a possibility of Raju being involved in the Hyderabad blasts too.