Even as investigating agencies search high and low for Abdus Subhan Qureshi, the alleged mastermind behind Operation BAD and Jaipur blasts, intelligence bureau officials say Subhan has crossed the border and is hiding at a camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
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An intercept picked up by the Intelligence Bureau suggests that Subhan, whose code name is Kasim, had crossed over into PoK via Nepal after the serial blasts in New Delhi.
IB sources told rediff.com that Subhan had been on radar of the Mumbai ATS ever since the Mumbai serial blasts but had managed to hoodwink the cops since then.
The IB says Subhan kept shuttling between northern Karnataka, Mumbai and New Delhi where he had allegedly set up units to carry out terror strikes.
Subhan, who is believed to be the chief of the tech wing of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India, is alleged to have masterminded the blasts at Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and New Delhi. He was in India after the blasts at Delhi had been set off and had even planned more operations.
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However, he was advised to cross over the border since a massive manhunt had been launched for him. Investigating agencies have alerted the Interpol and have sought its help to nab this man.
Investigating agencies had hoped to get some information from an engineering graduate, Abdul Sami. The Karnataka police say that Sami, a resident of Bijapur, was last seen with Subhan a month before the Bangalore blasts in Northern Karnataka. However, the interrogation conducted on Sami has not yielded any result as yet.
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The police say immediately after the Delhi blasts, Subhan had found shelter in Karnataka, from where he managed to give the slip once again and crossed the border.
The IB says that upon successful completion of an operation, these operative are summoned to their base camps across the border. Once these persons return to their base camps, they lie low for several years.
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During this period, they are involved in training of cadres and also supervising recruitments. The case of Shahid Bilal too was similar. After successful operations at Hyderabad and Ajmer, he was called back and asked lie low and focus on training new recruits.