In a major breakthrough, sleuths of Anti-Terrorists Squad arrested the prime accused in Kushinagar mosque blast case, Haji Qutubuddin, from Indo-Nepal border and his grandson Ashfaq from Telangana in the last 24 hours.
The accused were on the run since a blast took place inside a mosque in Kushinagar on November 11.
Both accused would now be brought to Kushninagar on transit remand to grill them and find out the conspiracy behind collecting explosives in large quantity.
Sources in the ATS confirmed that mastermind Haji Qutubuddin was nabbed on the Indo-Nepal border near Gorakhpur, while trying to sneak into Nepal late Thursday night.
Haji’s grandson and retired defence personnel, Ashfaq, was later nabbed from Sikandarabad area of Hyderabad (Telangana). Altogether, six people, including three minors, have been arrested by the police in the blast case in which no one was injured.
Haji, a native of Mau is a retired employee of UP Public Works Department and had brought 10 kilogram of explosives and stored it in the mosque in April. His grandson, Ashfaq, who retired from Army Medical Corps in 2017, was also present when the explosive was brought to the mosque.
Meanwhile, ATS officials said that Ashfaq was being brought from Hyderabad to Lucknow where he would be interrogated along with Haji. The ATS is already probing the case along with a blast in Bijnor, to figure out whether it was a well planned conspiracy or the explosive was brought for some other purpose.