Two more arrested in connection with UP serial blasts

In a joint operation, the Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday arrested two suspected militants of Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia from Doda area of Jammu in connection with last month's serial blasts in three court premises in UP.

The two, identified as Sajjad and Tariq Kashmiri alias Akhthar, were arrested from Doda town by the police forces of the two states alongwith sleuths of Central Security agencies and taken to Lucknow on a transit remand, official sources said.

The name of the two came up during the interrogation of HuJI militants Mohammed Khalid and Tariq, arrested by UP police's Special Task Force and Central Security Agencies on December 21.

Sajjad, a resident of Kishtawar, is alleged to have planted a bomb in the Faizabad court premises while Tariq Kashmiri is said to have provided logistic support for carrying out the serial blasts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad on November 23, that killed over  a dozen people injured more than 50.

They claimed that Sabah Hijaji, Jammu and Kashmir-based commander of the banned HuJI militant outfit, was the mastermind of the serial blasts in the state.

The sources claimed that during the interrogation of the arrested HuJI militants, they confessed that they had brought the consignment of Ammonium Nitrate and RDX from Jammu and West Bengal.

Sajjad, picked up from Kishtawar, had come in contact with the HuJI militants when he was studying in a madrassa at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, the sources claimed.

They said that orders were directly received from Hijaji in Doda area, who was under pressure from across the border to act following continued depletion of his cadre, who were either being killed in encounters or were being arrested by the police.

They arrested HuJI militants have also named a West Bengal resident involved in the serial blasts and the police has launched a manhunt to nab him.

After the Delhi serial blast in 2005, this is possibly the first case which has been cracked by the central security agencies and the actual perpetrators have been arrested.

The first arrest -- Mohammad Khalid and Mohammad Tariq -- was made outside the Barabanki railway station by the Special Task Force of the UP police following specific information provided by the central security agencies.

While Khalid, who hails from Jaunpur district, is alleged to have executed the three blasts on November 23, Tariq, who hails from Azamgarh district, is accused of being involved in serial blasts in Gorakhpur on May 22.