NEW DELHI: A Kashmiri militant and his two accomplices have been arrested in connection with the recent spate of bomb blasts in the Indian capital in which five persons lost their lives.
City police commissioner Arun Bhagat told reporters Tuesday that the accused Mohammad Ashfaq and his local associate Mohammad Tahir were arrested Monday night from a hotel near New Delhi railway station.
Bhagat said Mohammad Ashfaq who had received three-week training in Pakistan had been visiting the capital for the past one year to carry out militant activities.
He said interrogation was on to ascertain the militant group with which Ashfaq had links.
He said Ashfaq who hails from Srinagar used to bring high explosives to Delhi in trucks from Kashmir.
The police commissioner said with the arrest of Ashfaq Mohammad Tahir and their third accomplice Mehmood Paracha a resident of Delhi’s walled city three cases of bomb blasts in the busy Connaught place area in the City’s heart and two in the walled City have been solved.
He said Ashfaq 24 also planned to carry out more blasts in Connaught place.
Paracha an advocate was later released on bail after the Delhi high court bar association moved a Habeas corpus petition. Proceedings under Terrorists And Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) were dropped against him and an offence has been booked under the arms act.
Bhagat said Tahir had been lured by Ashfaq to become an associate and he had reportedly recruited two more persons in Delhi and trained them in Delhi in manufacturing bombs.
He said investigations revealed that bombs using high explosives and slow burning fuses were manufactured in different places in Delhi and at a workshop in the walled city area.
The police commissioner said the bomb planted in the toilet of the underground Palika Bazar parking lot a fortnight ago killing three persons was manufactured in that workshop He said the owner of the workshop was being questioned.
He said Ashfaq had admitted having received Rs 35000 from underground Kashmiri militant outfits for carrying out blasts in Delhi.
Bhagat said in all three cases have been registered two under explosive and TADA against Mohd Ashfaq and Mohd Tahir and one under arms act and Tada against Mehmood Paracha DHAKA. The recent cyclone that devastated southern Bangladesh damaged 41 aircraft of the country’s air force including 35 F6s supplied by Pakistan and four Soviet-made helicopters the “Daily Star” an English language paper reported here.
The cyclone according to the newspaper caused extensive damage to the air and naval bases at Patenga and Chittagong.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 17, 1991
