Lucknow, Sept. 23: Hundreds of policemen today swooped on a heartland village in search of missing members of a module accused of plotting the Delhi blasts as the probe reached what is being dubbed the “nursery of terror”.
Over 300 cops, drawn from both Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police, fanned out in Azamgarh’s Sanjarpur village, home of slain blast mastermind Mohammed Atif and arrested suspects Mohammed Saif and Saqib Nissar, raiding houses, scanning bank accounts and questioning people named by the accused.
Uttar Pradesh additional police chief Brij Lal said “four bank accounts of various terror suspects” had been “seized and scrutinised”.
Lal said a scan on the accounts had revealed that the suspects used to draw money deposited in these accounts “through ATMs in Delhi”.
Uttar Pradesh home secretary Javed Akhtar said the sleuths, who brought arrested accused Saqib with them, were looking for Atif’s associates like Shahdab Bhai and Asadullah but couldn’t get any leads on them. “The team will continue the raid till tomorrow.”
The raid started at dawn as the anti-terrorist squad of Delhi police and the special task force of Uttar Pradesh police cordoned off the village and began door-to-door searches.
“Six persons were questioned in connection with the Delhi blasts,” said Azamgarh police chief Ramit Sharma. “No detentions have been made so far. It was a joint operation of Delhi police and Uttar Pradesh police.”
Additional police chief Lal said a doctor, also named Javed Akhtar, Abdullah Akhtar, Saifulla Akhtar, Aziz Ahmad, Fakre Alam and Aslam Khan — all residents of Azamgarh and whose names had figured in a statement of one of the suspects — were detained for interrogation and later released.
A PTI report said the team seized some CDs and “important” documents from Sanjarpur.
Residents rued that Azamgarh, once known as a centre of culture and Sufism, had emerged as a “nursery of terror”.
Azamgarh is also the home district of don Abu Salem and alleged Indian Mujahideen leader Mufti Abu Basheer, accused of plotting the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts.
Lal said the bank accounts scanned by the joint police team “dated back to 2005” but didn’t have huge deposits. “But whatever money there was in the accounts was being withdrawn from Delhi.
“We are examining all the accounts and transactions, where the money had come from and who were depositing them in the accounts,” he said.
Sources said the police also raided Al Faraz Engineering College in Faridabad, about 350km away in western Uttar Pradesh. Atif, killed in a shootout in Delhi last Friday, had apparently completed his BTech from the college in 2005.
