Terrorists planned to explode 20 bombs in Delhi: Police

With the arrest of three more terrorists of the Indian Mujahideen allegedly involved in the serial blasts in Delhi, the Delhi police on Sunday claimed that the terror module was planning to explode at least 20 bombs in several places in the national capital, including Nehru Place.

The IM militants were planning to strike terror by exploding bombs in Nehru Place, a locality which houses several multi-storeyed buildings, and other parts of the capital, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H G S Dhaliwal told reporters.

Zia-ur-Rehman, Shakir Nishar and Mohammad Shakeel were arrested early on Sunday morning from Jamia Nagar, the locality where two terrorists, including the 'main man' Atif were killed in a gun battle with police on Friday.

The police also arrested Abdul Rehman, the caretaker of Batla House where the terrorists were residing on charges of cheating and forgery. Rehman, the father of the arrested Zia, had allegedly forged the signature of the owner of the house.

The encounter had taken place in that house.

During the interrogation of Mohammed Saif and Zeeshan who were arrested on Friday, the police claimed that they told investigators that Shakeel had planted the bomb in Gaffar market in Karol Bagh.

Dhaliwal said Zia and Shakeel planted bombs in the Maninagar area in the heart of Ahmedabad during the July 26 serial blasts.

The Delhi police had on Saturday claimed that they have uncovered the conspiracy behind the attacks in the capital and in Jaipur and Ahmedabad saying they were carried out by terrorists of Indian Mujahideen and the Students Islamic Movement of India in league with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

Dhaliwal said, Shakeel was a student of Jamia University where he was pursuing second year MA (Economics), while Zia was a student of third year BA in the same institution.

Nishar was doing an MBA course through distant education mode from Sikkim Manipal University.

Zia provided logistics support to the group while Shakeel was a ideologue who indoctrinated the other members and kept a watch on them in the absence of Atif.

"The terrorists planted bombs in the evening to cause maximum casualty," he said. They wrapped the bombs in two polythene covers and was asked by mastermind Atif to put garbage in the polythene bags so that no body suspected them, he said.

The arrested militants had at least four years of association with Atif, who usually told them to do just what they are assigned to do and not ask questions about future plans, Dhaliwal said.

"The module used to get restless when blasts were not happening and Atif used to tell the members that there is a drought in the newspapers and that they have to do something," he said.

Dhaliwal said the "general feeling" of the module was that "something should be happening continuosly" and there "should not be any vaccum" in their activities.

Atif never used to provide much details about funding and from where he got the explosives for carrying out blasts, the official added.

He also planned the minute details about the plan like whether the suspected bombers should shave or not, what kind of denim they should wear, Dhaliwal said, adding that they were always asked to place the bombs and depart from the location soon so that they could not be caught.

The module also immediately gathered at their hideout soon after planting the bombs and were glued to the news channels.

"They even used to mock at each other and would compare the casualty of the blasts in localities where each of them planted bombs," Dhaliwal said.