BOMBAY(PTI): A group of about 15 to 20 persons from Bombay were apparently trained abroad to carry out the serial bomb blasts here on March 12 last, information ferreted out from one of them, arrested by police March 21 has revealed.
The training was imparted in mid-February soon after they departed for Dubai from Bombay and were flown to an unknown destination where they spent about a week with instructions skilled in various weapons and explosives, the police commissioner, A.S. Samra, said replying to queries by reporters.
Declining to disclose the identity of the trained subversive, Samra, said the clues provided during interrogation would help trace the nationality of the trainers.
The subversive is among three more persons held by police Sunday, including one saboteur involved in planting bombs and another who piloted his associates to various places in the city without directly taking part in the blasts. Their interrogation had indicated that the possibility of “any foreign power” being involved in the blasts that left at least 235 persons dead and over 1,200 injured, could not be ruled out, the police chief said.
Earlier, four persons were arrested in connection with the planting of bombs.
All indications pointed to a well laid conspiracy hatched by somebody spending huge amounts to destroy Bombay.
The Bombay police, aided by central investigative agencies, were interrogating the subversives connected with the crime.
The police, he said, were trying to sew up various clues to find out the trainers of the saboteurs involved in the operation. Interrogation of the arrested show that some might have gone to Dubai for training.
The smuggled explosives landed on the west coast in Raigad district a month prior to the explosives and were stored in New Bombay, Samra said, adding that about 30 people could have been involved in the operation.
With Saturday’s arrest 13 persons have so far been taken into custody in connection with the blasts.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 26, 1993
