Re: Muslims in Malegaon Burning Pakistan’s Flag
Maharashtra police claim that they have cracked the Malegaon blasts case.
Eight people have been arrested so far, while eight others are still absconding. All those in custody, the police claim, are former SIMI activists.
The police claim the motive behind the blasts in Malegaon was to incite communal riots.
Four blasts occurred on a Friday afternoon. Two of the bombs were placed outside a local mosque in the Bada Kabrastan area where residents had gathered for namaaz.
Thirty-one people were killed and over 100 injured in the blasts. The main accused, the police claims, was a local factory owner Shabbir Batterywala.
Batterywala, who was already in police custody was questioned during which the police claim they found out about his involvement in the blasts in Malegaon.
The police claim that he went to Pakistan in 2003 for arms training. Batterywala and his employee Noor ul Huda planned the entire conspiracy in May 8, 2006.
The aim was to spark off riots in this communally volatile power loom town.
It was in Batterywala’s factory that the bombs were assembled.
Two men, Mohammed Ali and Asif Elias Junaid, brought the RDX used to Malegaon from Mumbai. Both of them are also accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts.
Both Ali and Junaid, police claim, have confessed to taking 15 kg of RDX to Malegaon, of which only around two kg have been found. The police are yet to find any trace of the rest of the RDX.
Pakistan connection
Investigators claim the two bombs, which exploded outside Bada Kabrastan, were planted in cycles by Noor ul Hooda and Raees Ahmed.
Mohammed Zahid placed the other two, which went off at Mushavira Chowk, under a bundle of clothes. So far eight men have been taken into custody and all of them are former SIMI activists, the police claim.
“We have arrested eight persons in all. The accused are directly linked to the blasts and the case has been solved. There is no direct link between 7/11 and Malegaon blast. Two of the accused arrested in the Malegaon blast have helped in the transportation of explosives for Malegaon bomb blast,” said Dr P S Pasricha, DGP, Maharashtra police.
But eight others are still absconding, two of whom, investigators claim, are Pakistani nationals. They helped make the bombs.
The police say they have based their findings after detailed investigations and interrogations but the challenge will now be to establish this in court.