'Qagzi link between LeT and IM'

A day after police claimed to have solved the Pune serial blasts with the arrest of three Indian Mujahideen terrorists in the national capital, they said it was Lashkar-e-Toiba member Fayyaz Qagzi who first came in touch with the arrested IM militants.

Qagzi, a LeT commander who is presently in Saudi Arabia, is the architect of the busted IM’s Maharashtra module.

On 8 May, 2006, a Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad team had chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica car on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and held three terror suspects. It had also seized 30 kg RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets.

Qagzi, originally a resident of Beed in Maharashtra, and  26/11 terror attack’s key handler Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, were behind the Aurangabad arms haul case and they actively coordinated terror acts in India.

Both fled to West Asian countries. Earlier this year, Jundal was deported from Saudi Arabia and arrested in Delhi.

Back in 2008, the LeT commander had come in contact with IM’s Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, who too fled from India and are now in Paksitan. Qagzi and the Bhatkal brothers are now making plans to carry out a series of bomb blasts across India.

The three IM terrorists — Asad Khan, 33, Imran Khan, 31 and Sayed Feroz, 38 — arrested recently in the Capital for Pune serial blasts told police that IM had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said all three came here to carry out a terror attack during the upcoming festival season. “They had plans to carry out attacks in Delhi and Bodh Gaya, Bihar. We have informed the security agencies in Bihar to beef up security,” said Kumar.

The police commissioner also said this module was in direct touch with Pakistan-based Bhatkals and L-eT’s Fayyaz Qagzi.