Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, and Gujarat were among the principal targets of the terror mastermind arrested in a Karnataka village in mid-January
Mastermind Riyazuddin planned to use vehicles laden with explosivesNEW DELHI: Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, and Gujarat were among the principal targets of the terror mastermind arrested in a Karnataka village in mid-January, according to top official sources.
Riyazuddin Nasir and his henchmen had also planned to set off a series of blasts on Goa’s beaches, when they are crowded with tourists.
Top official sources said Riyazuddin and one of his associates had travelled to Maharashtra often as part of preparations for possible attacks in the state. They believe Riyazuddin is one of the ‘biggest catches’ of the Indian security establishment in its war against terrorism.
Riyazuddin, whose remorseless confessions are chilling, has startled interrogators with his extensive knowledge of bomb making. Through the questioning, he nonchalantly declared he was willing to be a suicide bomber, sources said.
Riyazuddin alias Mohammed Ghouse, a native of Hyderabad who had undergone a year’s training at the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s camp at Muridke in Pakistan, was arrested in Davanagere on January 11 along with Asadullah Abu Bakar.
The two were spotted by an alert police constable who found the presence of two strangers in a village suspicious and questioned them.
Fake number plates were initially recovered from them, and they pretended to be vehicle thieves. But further investigations blew the lid off what could probably be the most genuine busting of a terror module anywhere in India in a very long time.
Riyazuddin is the son Mohammed Naseeruddin, a Hyderabad-based cleric who is in jail now in connection with the murder of Gujarat minister Haren Pandya in 2003.
What has startled the investigators is the extensive planning that Riyazuddin had done to spread terror across southern and western India. He had firmed up plans to target the offices of the DGPs of both Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Riyazuddin’s terror module in India was in the initial stages of its formation and he had so far managed to rope in only two people. “We were lucky to have avoided several attacks, it is a major breakthrough,” a senior official told DNA.
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