The Bangalore police, who have received a lot of flak for their inability to crack the IISC attack case, may have reason to smile. Riyazuddin Nasir, who was picked up by the Karnataka police, has described the man who had carried out the IISC attack in Bangalore in December 2005.
During the course of interrogation, Nasir, also known as Ghouse, revealed that the IISC attacker was around 6-feet-tall and of wheatish complexion. Although he did not reveal the name of the man, he said that three persons had come to Bangalore to carry out the attack.
Nasir said that he had met the man in early 2005 in Pakistan, when he was undergoing training. The Bangalore police, who had prepared a sketch based on the versions given by some of the suspects, now say the sketch and the description given by Nasir match. They say that they will launch a manhunt and have already alerted the border police on the same.
According to Nasir, Shahid Bilal, the HuJI operative and the mastermind in the Hyderabad blasts, is dead. Nasir said Bilal, along with an associate, had been shot dead by gunmen in Pakistan.
Both the Hyderabad and the Bangalore police, however, do not buy this story and feel that Nasir could well be misleading them. The police feel that Bilal could either be in Karnataka or in Uttar Pradesh.
The Intelligence Bureau says that they have alerted their networks across the country and the truth on Bilal would be out soon. Nasir will be produced before a court on Saturday following which an application would be made to subject him to a narco-analysis test. The police are relying on the test for further leads.
The police say that a narco-analysis test is needed as Nasir is stubborn and uncooperative. Nasir, during the interrogation, kept saying that he would avenge his father's arrest and says that he will never divert from the path of Jihad, police said.
