NIA recovers 18 live bombs in Ranchi

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday recovered 18 live bombs in Ranchi after two people detained in connection with the Patna serial blasts gave away the location of the explosives.

The NIA on Friday night arrested Ifthekar and Feroz Aslam after interrogating members of the “Ranchi Module”, an outfit that the agency claimed specifically targeted  Narendra Modi, who is now Prime Minister, in the Patna blasts.

The Patna blasts took place last October during one of Modi’s election rallies. 

Ifthekar and Feroz led the NIA into finding 18 live bombs near Sithio village and detonators and explosives from Hindpirhi in Jharkhand, which the agency said were similar to the ones used in the Patna serial blasts .

According to the NIA, the arrest of four people from the Ranchi module on May 20 revealed a conspiracy to target  Modi during his Patna rally. 

After interrogating the people from the Ranchi module, including the SIMI and Indian Mujahideen-affiliated Hyder Ali alias “Black Beauty”, the NIA is understood to have identified some more members of this module.

The NIA claimed that the arrested Ranchi module members confessed to targetting Modi and also carrying out dry runs at five places — Akbarpur, Kanpur, Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi and Patna.

But in view of Modi’s high security, they decided on planting the bombs at the venue of his Patna rally, just 100 metres from the dais. Besides Hyder Ali, the NIA arrested Mojibullah, Numan Ansari and a juvenile (whose identity was not disclosed).