SIMI bombmaker may be key to blasts

When Students Islamic Movement of India chief Safdar Nagori and his ten key associates were arrested in Indore in March, security agencies claimed that terror operations in the country would come to a grinding halt as the masterminds were now behind bars.

However that was not to be and in quick succession serial blasts rocked Jaipur, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad leaving security agencies foxed.

Intelligence Bureau officials told rediff.com that several important SIMI activists are still on the run. On top of the list of wanted men is Mohammad Altaf Subhan.

Subhan is a key activist of SIMI and specialises in designing bombs for the outfit. So impressed was Nagori with his skills that he was made the head of SIMI's technical cell. IB officials say that Subhan, a resident of Thane near Mumbai, had started imparting bomb-making training to several SIMI activists across the country.

The confession statements of both alleged Ahmedabad blasts mastermind Abdul Bashir and Nagori indicate that Subhan had imparted training to SIMI activists across India. Prior to the Ahmedabad and Bengaluru serial blasts, he had conducted training camps at Hubli in Karnataka, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Ernakulam in Kerala.

Investigating agencies say Subhan is a prize catch because they are sure that he is one who had made the LeDs (Light emitting Diodes -- semi conducting devices used to trigger bombs) for the bombs used in Karnataka and Gujarat. A Hyderabad police team too has left to Gujarat and will interrogate Bashir for more clues on Subhan and his whereabouts. An officer in the Hyderabad police told rediff.com that they had information that Subhan could also be behind the Hyderabad twin blasts on August 25.

Bashir said during interrogation said that Subhan played a vital role in the Hyderabad and Jaipur blasts. An investigating officer said that though Bashir was proving a tough nut to crack, he had dropped enough hints regarding the involvement of Subhan in all four blasts (Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Ahmedabad).