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IM terrorist recounts chilling details of 13/7 bomb blasts

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Indian Mujahideen terrorist Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, who was arrested along with IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal by the National Investigations Agency (NIA) in Nepal in August, has recounted chilling details of the July 13, 2011 blasts, when he and three others bombed Mumbai, killing 26 people. dna has details of his interrogation report.

Haddi’s statement to NIA says planning for the blasts started a week in advance. Haddi and terrorist Waqas took a room on rent in Byculla. A week before 13/7, Bhatkal and Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu came to Mumbai and stayed with them. For a week, they carried recce of various spots, finalising on four to plant bombs: Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House, Kabutarkhana and a flower market outside the Dadar railway station. “These places were chosen because they are heavily crowded in the evening and will result in maximum loss of life,” said a policeman.

On the morning of 13/7, the men, led by Bhatkal, started assembling bombs in their room. Four pressure-cooker bombs were assembled, according to Haddi. Three pressure cookers were filled with a gel of ammonium nitrate and fitted with detonators and watch timers. The fourth was filled with dry granules of ammonium nitrate and fitted with a detonator and a watch timer.

The bombs were packed in plastic sheets and put in handbags. Around 2.30pm, each person, carrying one bomb, left Byculla. Haddi left for Zaveri Bazar and placed a bomb under the seat of a Scooty, which had been stolen the previous night and parked near Zaveri Bazar by Bhatkal and Waqas. Haddi rode the Scooty to a Zaveri Bazar eatery where he parked it.

Meanwhile, Waqas planted the second bomb near a small eatery in Opera House. Bhatkal and Monu left for Dadar with two bombs. Both of them placed the third bomb at a bus-stop near Kabutarkhana in Dadar and the fourth bomb was planted in the crowded flower market outside Dadar station.

In his statement, Haddi said that Bhatkal and Monu loitered near Dadar for sometime after planting the bombs and then went to Kurla terminus and took a late evening train to Darbhanga in Bihar.

Around 7pm, Haddi and Waqas returned to their room. To confirm that the blasts occurred, they switched on the television and watched the blasts and their aftermath. Waqas, who was connected to the internet by a dongle, sent an online message to Riyaz Bhatkal informing him of the success of the operation.

Instead of fleeing Mumbai, the two continued to stay in the same place in Byculla. They roamed freely around Mumbai followed by a lavish vacation in Goa.

In the last week of December, news came that Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested Haddi’s associate Nakki. The arrest alerted Haddi and Waqas that security agencies would be on their trail as Haddi had been in touch with Nakki. The duo fled from Mumbai in the first week of January this year.

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