Abdul Sattar, a resident of Malappuram in Kerala who was arrested by the Hyderabad police for alleged links with the Indian Mujahideen, was on Wednesday handed over to the Bangalore police for questioning in connection with the bomb blasts there.
He was produced in a local court in Hyderabad on Wednesday which handed him to Bangalore police team for 14 days. Hyderabad city police commissioner B Prasad Rao told rediff.com that while his hand in Bangalore blast was suspected, there was nothing to suggest that he was involved in the twin blasts in Hyderabad in August 2007, in which more than 40 people were killed.
"We are yet to find any evidence to establish his involvement in any other incidents", Prasad Rao said. "We can say for sure about his hand in Hyderabad blast only after the prime suspect Riyaz Bhatkar is arrested", he said.
Police and security agencies were looking for Riyaz Bhatkal of Karnataka in connection with the recent blasts in Mumbai as well as Hyderabad. The commissioner said that Riyaz Bhaktal had come to Hyderabad in October last and Abdul Satttar had provided hi, the shelter.
57-year-old Abdul Sattar is a radio mechanic and the Hyderabad police was looking for him ever since another terror suspect from Kerala Mohammed Abdul Jabbar was arrested in November last year from his home in Pahadishareef area of Hyderabad.
The police had then said Abdul Jabbar had links with Lashkar-e-Tayeba and had played a role in recruiting the youth and sending them across to Pakistan for interrogation. The police said Abdul Jabbar's name came to light after four Kerala youth were killed in an encounter in Kashmir in November last. One of the Kerala youth killed in the incident Abdul Raheem Aftab was Sattar's son in law, the police said.
According to police sources, Abdu Sattar has admitted his hand in preparing the timer devices for the bombs and supplied some of them to Riyaz Bhatkal. The police is suspecting that these devices were used in the blasts in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Surat.
However in case of Surat the bombs did not explode because of the fault in the timers.
The police also say that Sattar was involved in extremist activities since 1995 when he along with others had plotted to kill the then Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar. But later he fled to Hyderabad and settled down in the city in 1998 and resided in seven different areas.
While he had first wife in Kerala, he married second time in Hyderabad and has two children from her.
"If some thing more comes up in the investigations we will bring him back for further questioning", Prasad Rao said.
