Samjauta blast accused key suspect in Mecca Masjid terror attack

HYDERABAD: Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) on Saturday emerged as the prime suspect in the blast at the Mecca Masjid here as investigators claimed to have made a breakthrough with the recovery of a SIM card from a phone attached to an unexploded bomb.

HuJI activist Mohammed Abdul Sahed alias Bilal, wanted for the blasts on the Samjhauta Express, has emerged as a key suspect in the bomb attack at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad.

A SIM card believed to have been used to trigger the explosive device at the mosque was purchased from Kolkata and its trail had led to a link with Bilal, sources in the team probing the attack said.

They said that indications had emerged that Bilal could have masterminded the attack with some cadres of the banned SIMI and sleeper cells of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Both HuJI and Jaish follow the Deobandi sect of Islam.

Bilal, who took over the command of HuJI on October 12, 2005, has been on the list of most wanted terrorists after he masterminded a suicide attack on the Special Task Force's headquarters in Hyderabad that left one police personnel dead.

Bilal, who is believed to be in Karachi, is also wanted for the blasts on the Samjauta Express in February that left 68 people dead.

An associate of Rasool Khan 'Party', a Gujarat resident, Bilal has been instrumental in sending youths for arms training to Pakistan through Dhaka and some Gulf states, the sources said.

Eleven people were killed in the explosion that occurred during Friday prayers while five more died when police fired on protesters who attacked shops and petrol pumps in the communally sensitive Charminar area.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who both went to the mosque and visited the injured, said they were not averse to a CBI probe into the terrorist attack.

Though Patil cautioned against jumping to conclusions on external links to the attack, a police official said investigators suspect the involvement of HuJI and the state's most-wanted terrorist Mohammed Abdul Sahed alias Bilal, who they think masterminded the blast to create communal discord.

Bilal is said to be also working for terror groups like the Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Police said efforts were on to trace the perpetrators with the help of the SIM card in a cellular phone connected to one of the three unexploded bombs found in the mosque that were later defused.

City Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said the blast was a "planned terrorist attack" using a sophisticated device. "There are some clues and we are working on them," he said without going into details.

Normal life in the city was paralysed by a day-long bandh called by Muslim groups to protest the terror attack.

Police sources said the modus operandi of the blast and the technology used to trigger the explosive device suggested it was the handiwork of HuJI, a terrorist group that came into existence in 1992. The HuJI is believed to have close links with Al-Qaeda and Taliban.

Patil, who reviewed the situation at a meeting with Chief Minister Reddy and top state officials, told reporters: "We have no difficulty in ordering a CBI inquiry if the state government wants. We will sit together and take a decision after the conclusion of ongoing investigations."

Declining to name suspects, he said, "We have some information. But premature disclosure does not help in investigation."

Treading cautiously on questions about external links, Patil said, "We should not keep blaming...We cannot say anything unless the final conclusion is given."

The Chief Minister, who was attacked by the opposition over the police firing, too said his government had no objection to a CBI probe into the blast and the police action.

Patil said the blast was part of a "design" to target places of worship to create "bad blood" among communities. He cautioned against linking it to the September 2006 explosion at a mosque in Malegaon that killed over 30 people.

An eerie silence prevailed in the city as it struggled to come to terms with the worst terror strike in its history.

Buses stayed off roads and shops, business establishments and cinema halls were closed as the bandh called by the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen and other groups evoked a total response.

Rallies were organised in several districts, including Mahaboobnagar, Adilabad, Khammam, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Guntur and Krishna to express solidarity with the victims of the blast.

Asked whether there were intelligence warnings about possible attacks, Patil said the government had information that places of worship could be targeted but there was "no specific information about the time and place" of a strike.

To a question about inadequate security measures at Mecca Masjid, Patil said there were some difficulties in devising security measures at religious places.

Asked whether any other city could be targeted by terrorists, he said: "We have some information about possible terror targets. We are examining how to provide better security to these cities without creating fear psychosis."

Patil said the Centre and the state would leave no stone unturned to see that such incidents did not recur.

He had a word of appreciation for the state government for its "prompt and efficient" handling of the situation in the aftermath of the blast.

Assuring the Chief Minister that the Centre stood by the state government, he said the UPA government would do its best to help Andhra Pradesh discharge its duty in the best possible manner.