Nearly five years after explosions rocked crowded areas of Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar claiming 27 lives and leaving 127 others injured, Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Tuesday arrested a key operative of home- grown terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) in connection with the 2011 Mumbai triple blasts.
Identifying the arrested IM operative as Zainul Abedin, a resident of Bhatkal town in Karnataka, Inspector-General of the State ATS Niket Kaushik said that Abedin was nabbed from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here at around 5.30 am.
Acting on a tip-off that Abedin would be landing in the city from abroad, the sleuths from the ATS’ Kalachowki unit were waiting for him at the airport. “He was arrested the moment he arrived in the city by an international flight,” Kaushik said.
After his arrest, Abedin was produced before a local court, which remanded him in ATS’ custody for 10 days.
Abedin is the 11th accused to have been arrested in connection with the triple blasts – better known as the 13/7 Mumbai serial blasts.
Addressing a news conference here, Kaushik said: “Abedin is a key member of IM.
He had been in touch with several key figures of the banned terror group, especially its founder Riyaz Bhatkat. We expect that his arrest will help us in unravelling the conspiracy behind the blasts”.
According to Kaushik, the Maharashtra ATS had issued a red corner notice (RCN) against Abedin through Interpol wing of the CBI.
Police said that Abedin was responsible for supplying explosives for the IM terror operations in India for several years now.
“Apart from the Maharashtra ATS, Abedin was wanted by the anti—terror wings of Karnataka and Gujarat Police and also NIA,” a senior police officer said.
It may be recalled in the blasts that rocked the crowded areas of Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar, both in South Mumbai, and Dadar in north-central Mumbai on July 13, 2011, 27 people were killed and 127 others injured
First of the three explosions ripped through the Opera House locality — a busy diamond market area — at 6.54 pm. This was the most devastating blast among the three explosions.
Two minutes later, another powerful blast rocked Zaveri bazaar locality — the hub of gold, jewellery and wholesale commodity trading — where an Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) kept in an umbrella went off on Shakeel Memon Street, located in the vicinity of famous Mumbadevi temple.
The third blast took place at a bus stop near Plaza cinema at Dadar in north-central Mumbai at 7.06 pm. Blood splattered all over the place, a heavily damaged Maruti Esteem car with a heavily damaged boot and bleeding people running helter skelter, had made a ghastly sight.