The Special Cell, the anti-terrorist arm of the Delhi Police, on Monday arrested 46-year-old co-founder of the banned terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) and SIMI ideologue in an encounter in Gazipur of Delhi in which about 13 rounds fired with no casualty, said police. A pistol, along with five cartridges, was recovered from the possession of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, alias Tauqeer, accused of 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat and Delhi.
He was also the mastermind of the 23 serial blasts that had rocked Ahmedabad leaving 57 dead and more than 150 grievously injured.
Qureshi had managed to hoodwink State police forces and security agencies for almost a decade but ran out of luck after sleuths tracked him down a few days ahead of the 69th Republic Day celebrations.
“On January 20, sleuths of the Special Cell had received a tip-off about Qureshi visiting Gazipur to meet his associate in a white Santro car. The team laid a trap and arrested him after exchange of fire. On sustained interrogation, he confessed that he had plans to revive the IM,” said Pramod Singh Kushwah, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell.
“Qureshi had been evading arrest for the past 10 years. He was hiding in Nepal from 2009 till 2015 where he taught English. From 2015 till June 2017, Qureshi was in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia where he did small jobs,” the DCP added.
Qureshi, a certified Microsoft software engineer, is known as the top leader and fund raiser of the Students’ Islamic Movements of India (SIMI). An expert bomb maker often referred to as “India’s Bin laden”, he was also the main conspirator behind the bomb blasts in Mumbai in 2006, Jaipur blasts in 2008 and Bengaluru blasts in 2014.
“We are verifying Qureshi’s role in Mumbai train blasts,” said Kushwah.
Police said Qureshi is technically sound, an expert in making bombs and looked after the training of youths in several camps in Choral (Madhya Pradesh), Wagamon (Kerala), Halol (Gujarat).
Qureshi was like a moving force behind SIMI/IM, as he played an important role in attending or arranging meetings of top SIMI members in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka and Kerala, training Camps at Choral (MP), Wagamon (Kerala), Halol (Gujarat) and 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat.
The SIMI cadres organised training camps at Choral, (Indore, MP) in November 2007, at Wagamon (Kerala) in December 2007, at Halol (Gujarat) in January 2008. These camps provided physical and psychological training to youths. The recruits were trained in mountaineering, swimming, map reading, pistol firing, preparing and using molotov cocktail (petrol bomb), enacting fake accidents to declare death of cadres and other evading tactics to mislead interrogators.
Qureshi is reported to have regrouped and carried out mass recruitments post the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal in 2013.
Apart from his involvement in carrying out bomb blasts, Tauqeer was wanted by the Bihar Police after the Patna blasts in 2013, for being a crucial facilitator of providing explosives in the 2011 bomb blasts in Mumbai and for the lumbini Park blasts in 2007 in Hyderabad where more than 33 people were killed at the crowded eatery in Kothi area. Qureshi was also wanted by the Uttar Pradesh in 2006 terror cases of Varanasi.
Talking about Qureshi’s plans to revive Indian Mujahideen, the DCP said, “During his stay in Nepal, Qureshi managed to procure a fake voter ID through an acquaintance Nizam Khan and stayed in Nepal till 2015. During this period, he again came in touch with Riyaz Bhatkal who motivated him to come to Riyadh in Saudia Arabia for arranging finances and to revive Indian Mujahideen in India. He procured a Nepali passport in the name of Abdul Rehman and in February-March 2015 he went to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He worked as a salesman in various stores and also had meetings with many SIMI/IM sympathisers there. He returned from Saudi Arabia in June 2017. After return, he started to visit India clandestinely to revive SIMI/IM. Through his established contacts, he procured logistics for his visits to India.
On Saturday last, Qureshi was heading to Uttar Pradesh and had stopped at the paper market in Gazipur area to meet an old SIMI sympathiser, when he was intercepted by the Special Cell sleuths. Qureshi was later produced and remanded to police custody for 14 days. He will be taken to various places across the country to verify his movements, police said.