{Dr. Syed Ismail Afaque is picked up for ‘supplying’ IM with explosives! Dr. Syed Ismail Afaque’s family, however, denied the charges. “He was not involved in any illegal activities. He ran a homeopathy clinic in Bhatkal. He is a regular family man. What the police are saying is not true,’’ said Lanka, Afaque’s younger brother.} - ***ONLY Capital punishment for those involved in terrorism in any form - NO Indian style Due Process of Law for all those who are involved in terrorism directly or even remotely indirectly.*** Homeopath is picked up for ‘supplying’ IM with explosives - Security agencies have identified a 34-year-old homeopathy doctor based in coastal Karnataka as the elusive supplier of explosives to Indian Mujahideen and the “missing link in some of the blasts carried out” by the terror outfit. Syed Ismail Afaque was arrested by police in Bangalore on Thursday during the course of a terrorism probe, which also led to the seizure of a large cache of explosives during a raid in Bhatkal the same day. Highly placed sources in Bangalore police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that investigations spanning over six months showed that Afaque supplied explosives to IM operative Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi in Mangalore for the February 21, 2013 twin blasts in Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar that killed 17 people, apart from other cases. NIA sources added that the agency would seek custody of Afaque once the Bangalore police completes its probe into his activities and associations. Security agencies have also tagged Afaque, who heads the Karwar unit of the pro-Muslim Popular Front of India, as a close associate of IM founders Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal. They believe he was Riyaz Bhatkal’s pointman in coastal Karnataka for the supply of explosives. When contacted, Afaque’s younger brother Yasin Lanka, a businessman, denied the charges and called his sibling “a regular family man” who would not get involved in terrorism-related activities. Security agencies, however, alleged that Afaque was the likely supplier of explosives for many IM-linked blasts. “This is the missing link in some of the blasts carried out by the IM where the source of supply has been indicated as coastal Karnataka. Many IM men who were arrested have stated that they received ammonium nitrate from unidentified persons in the Udupi-Mangalore region but the real identity of the supplier was not known,’’ said a senior police involved in the probe. “He is essentially a bomb logistics supplier. He does not know how to fabricate a bomb. Others would collect the explosives, and experts in the IM would make bombs,’’ said another senior police official. Investigations in many IM-related cases have revealed that the explosives used were sourced in coastal Karnataka by cadre guided by Pakistan-based Riyaz Bhatkal, the sources said. They include the May 13, 2008 serial blasts in Jaipur that left 80 people dead; the September 13, 2008 Delhi serial blasts that left 30 dead; and the July 11, 2013 Mumbai blasts that left 26 dead, sources said. IM militants, including key operative Yasin Bhatkal who was arrested in August 2013, did not reveal the identity of the explosives supplier claiming that only Riyaz Bhatkal knew his identity. Last year, Biju Thomas, a licensed explosives supplier who was illegally selling ammonium nitrate to stone quarries in the Udupi region, was arrested after police deduced that IM procurers were tapping the illegal market for supplies. But the breakthrough came after the arrest of two major IM operatives, Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar, and analysis of Internet chats between them and Riyaz in the period leading to the Hyderabad blasts in 2013. According to sources, a mobile phone number was exchanged by Riyaz and Akhtar to be passed on to a supplier of explosives in Mangalore. Akhtar then received explosive material in a trolley bag near the Utility Health Centre, Mangalore, investigators found. Investigations of leads from the chats finally led agencies to monitor Afaque’s activities which subsequently revealed that he was communicating with Riyaz Bhatkal, sources said. On Thursday, police arrested Afaque and two associates Saddam Hussein, 35, and Abdus Subur, 24, an MBA student, during a raid in Bangalore. Police also seized a large quantity of ammonium nitrate, detonators, electronic timer devices, digital circuits, wires, PVC pipes, gel based explosive material and fuel oil from Subur’s house in Bhatkal. Lanka added that Afaque was arrested when he reached the city to visit his youngest brother Abdul Azeez, who is a student living in a flat in east Bangalore along with Subur. “They did not find anything in the flat. Only some routers, modems, computers,’’ Lanka said. The doctor’s brother alleged that the house in Bhatkal, where the explosives were found, was broken into by police since no one was at home. But Bangalore Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhishek Goyal said the arrest and seizures were done as per law and based on several months of intelligence gathering by multiple agencies. Afaque, Hussein and Subur, all natives of Bhatkal, were remanded to police custody till January 21 by a special terrorism court where they were produced on Friday afternoon. indianexpress/article/india/india-others/homoeopath-is-picked-up-for-supplying-im-with-explosives/
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 07:08:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015