Shops from where cookers were bought for the 13/7 Mumbai blasts, identified

From the interrogations of top IM operative Yasin Bhatkal and his accomplice Asaduallah Akhtar, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has found out that the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were concealed in pressure cookers, not tiffin boxes, to carry out the blasts. The police have identified the shops from where the cookers were purchased.

“Four pressure cookers were bought by the accused. Two were bought from a shop in Grant Road and two from a shop in Pydhonie. We will be taking the shopkeepers’ statements and they too will be a part of the identification parade process. This will bolster evidence against Yasin and his accomplices,” said an ATS officer, requesting anonymity.

Yasin has also told the police that a week prior to the blast Waqas Ahmed and Asaduallah had taken a bus from Sion to Mangalore. “In Mangalore, they met a contact person of Riyaz Bhatkal near AJ Hospital, who handed them approximately five kg of ammonium nitrate and returned to the city the next day. They had also bought IED material, such as batteries of 9mm bolt, Casio clocks, soldering machines, transistors and circuit material, from the city,” the officer said.

The police are now trying to get details of the wanted accused Ahmed, a Pakistani, Tehseen Akhtar, who is next in command after Yasin, and the person who had delivered the explosives to the group in Mangalore. “Interrogations of Yasin and Asaduallah might help in getting more details about these wanted accused,” the officer said.

Additional director general of police, ATS, Rakesh Maria said, “Yasin and Asaduallah have told us about the planning and execution of the blasts. There are still a lot of things that we need to know from them.”

He refused to divulge anything further.