UP team roped in to decipher HuJI link

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has been called in to help with the Hyderabad twin blasts probe, on the instance of intelligence agencies. The STF has been tasked with providing complete data on the Kolkata-based area commander of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), Jalaluddin alias Babu, and seven other members of the outfit.

From this data, top Intelligence Bureau officials and a joint director-rank officer of the CBI will decipher the militant network behind the blasts.

Babu was arrested in Lucknow on July 23; he and his associates have made several revelations to the IB and STF during interrogation.

For instance, Babu told his interrogators he was trained to carry explosives in specially designed bags by HuJI's Bangladesh-based commander Nizan-ur-rehman, and that he and the other men underwent training in assembling timer devices. Nizan reportedly carried out the directives of Pakistan-based HuJI men Shahid Bilal and Rasool Pati, both from south India. Babu and Nizan's brother Aziz-ur-rehman, who was also arrested by the UP STF, also told the sleuths they played pivotal roles in several blasts.

Babu also confessed the HuJI stage-managed the blasts at the Sankatmochan temple in Varanasi in March 2006, the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad earlier this year as well as the blasts in Gorakhpur and Malegaon.

The officials engaged in deciphering the network behind Saturday's blasts are said to be getting significant help from Babu's revelations, a top UP STF official said.