Raids continue at various places after recovery
In a major breakthrough in probe into the Patna serial blast case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday recovered as many as six timer bombs and 18 explosive filled ‘pipes’ from near Sithio village on the outskirts of Ranchi.
The bombs and the ‘pipes’ buried about a feet deep in the soil were found near a farm on the entrance of Sithio on Saturday afternoon. The ‘pipes’ were actually elbows used to connect two water pipes to make them a gradient of 90 degrees and the timer bombs were sealed and wrapped in thick poly-bags.
A team of the NIA had come to Ranchi on Friday evening with two arrested IM operatives Haider and Mujibullah and was staying at Hatia Guest House of the State Government.
According to sources, the NIA sleuths interrogated the two arrested IM members and got a tip off from them.
The team then moved to Sithio village, infamous for being a hideout of IM’s sleeper cell in Ranchi. The team then zeroed in on two persons of the village — Iftikhar Alam and Maulana Taufiq, who gave a tip-off about the bombs near the village.
The agency sleuths immediately reached the spot and with the help of local police they dug out the cache of explosives. The timer bombs were said to be of the same nature and intensity that were used in the Patna serial blast during PM Narendra Modi’s rally last year.
Sources added that the elbows filled with explosives were also very powerful as they can cause devastating effect if added in a series and exploded.
The NIA team with the help of local police also conducted raids in Hindpiri and Karbala Chowk areas. Sources said that the team seized a bag from terror suspect Numan’s sister’s residence but the NIA officials refused to divulge any details about it.
While raids continued at the time of filing of this report, State police officials remained tight-lipped about the incident. State police spokesperson and IG Anurag Gupta said that he had the information of six bombs’ recovery but he could not give the exact number of bombs.
Six suspected Indian Mujahideen members have been arrested from Jharkhand till date in the Patna serial blasts case. Seven people were killed and several others were injured in the blasts that took place at Gandhi Maidan and Railway Station of Patna last year.