UP terrorists planned to hit Gateway of India

Five militants, arrested in connection with last month's Uttar Pradesh serial blasts, wanted to carry out simultaneous explosions in four crowded areas in Mumbai, including Gateway of India, official sources said.

The sources quoting the interrogators questioning the five militants arrested from Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh), Doda (Jammu and Kashmir) and North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) claimed that Bangladesh-based banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia was planning to carry out yet another serial blasts in Mumbai.

All the five have been arrested for November 23 serial blasts in UP cities -- Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi.

Gateway of India, Andheri, Oberoi Hotel and Navi Mumbai were places where these militants had already carried out dry runs -- a chilling reminder of 2006 Mumbai serial blasts.

The militants, however, changed their plans for Mumbai after a group of UP lawyers manhandled two Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants, arrested for hatching conspiracy to kidnap VIPs, including Rahul Gandhi.

This was the third incident in last one year when either HuJI militants, their sympathisers or Jaish militants were attacked in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, Faizabad court premise was witness to an altercation between lawyers and HuJI militants, who had conspired and provided logistic help to terrorists who carried out the suicide attack on disputed structure in 2005. The local bar association had banned its advocates from taking up their cases.

While the court premises in Varanasi was witness last year to beating of one Waliullah Khan, the main accused in the Sankat Mochan temple explosions, lawyers in Lucknow also manhandled two Jaish-e-Mohammad militants arrested in October who were planning to kidnap Rahul Gandhi.

The counterparts in Mumbai have been informed about the interrogation of HuJI terrorists and necessary precautions have been taken, an official, attached with the interrogation of five militants, said on condition of anonymity.

The role of these militants would be probed also in connection with Hyderabad and Mumbai serial blasts and a team of Andhra Pradesh Police and Mumbai's Anti-terrorist Squad were already in Lucknow to examine them.

The five militants -- Mohammed Khalid, Tariq alias Dr Tariq, Sajjad Wani, Tariq alias Akhthar and Altaf Ansari alias Mukhtiar alias Raju -- are also seen as a sleeper cell of HuJI, which was activated by the terror outfit once in a year.

After committing the heinous crime, Ansari quietly slipped back into West Bengal and started working as a labour with Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, while Wani also discreetly went back to Kisthawar area and started leading his normal life.

The only missing link in the UP serial blast was the person who had sent the email from an East Delhi cyber café claiming of more blasts in Uttar Pradesh and sleuths of Central security agency claimed that they would be able to apprehend him soon.

Ansari's role in Sankat Mochan temple blast and Gorakhpur blast would also be probed by the UP Police and central security agency, the sources said.