The explosion took place in 59320 Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train. (Source: ANI)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested two members of a group, which was allegedly involved in executing the Bhopal-Ujjain train blast on March 7. No one was injured in the incident. The two, Mohammad Atif (27) and his neighbour Asif Iqbal (26), are residents of Jajmau area in Kanpur. Iqbal is the cousin of group member Saifullah, who was gunned down in an encounter by the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad in Lucknow on March 7 soon after the blast. He was also Atif and Asif’s neighbour.
An NIA official said Atif and Asif had come under the scanner of security agencies after the Madhya Pradesh Police arrested Atif Muzaffar, Danish Akhtar and Syed Mir Hussain in connection to the blast the same day. During questioning, the three had spoken about their hideout in Lucknow and named other members of their group.
“Atif and Iqbal were arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy….for their connection to members of the ISIS module in Kanpur, who had allegedly planned the train blast…Evidence collected so far shows that Asif Iqbal was an active member of the organisation while Atif supplied arms and ammunition to the group,” said an NIA officer. On March 7, after Saifullah was killed in the encounter at a house in Lucknow, eight country-made pistols, 632 live cartridges, 71 empty shells, cellphones and other items were seized from the spot. Later, ATS arrested three more members of the group — Mohammad Faisal Khan, Gaus Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Azhar. All are lodged in the Lucknow District Jail.
In May, Atif had written to the chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, National Human Rights Commission and the UP DGP, alleging that the NIA has been “harassing” him for nearly two months. He had alleged that the agency summoned him to its Lucknow office every three days, making him sit there all day on the “pretext” of questioning him over “links with terror suspects”. While Asif is unmarried, Atif, who was working at an embroidery unit in Kanpur, is married to Gulnaz Bano and has two children. Sources in the police said the NIA is also looking into Atif’s role in planting a bomb near the Ramlila ground in Lucknow, last year. “Atif Muzaffar, who was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police, had claimed that he, along with two others, had planed a bomb at Ramlila ground during Dussehra celebrations, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on October 11 last year,” said an officer.
The bomb did not explode and two days later, Atif reportedly went to the spot to find the polythene bag containing the explosive missing, sources said. Atif Muzaffar had also allegedly revealed during questioning that he had gone to Lucknow on October 11 with two of his friends from Kanpur, one of which the NIA suspects was Mohammad Atif.
During interrogation by NIA, Atif had denied his involvement in this case.
