'93 Mumbai serial blasts suspect held in UAE, may be deported soon

MUMBAI: A 51-year-old fugitive wanted for plotting and helping transport the explosives used in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai was detained in the UAE on Wednesday on inputs provided by Indian security agencies, and is likely to be deported soon.

Abu Bakar Abdul Gafoor, a central Mumbai resident, is alleged to have undergone training with several others on explosives and in assembling firearms in a camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashimir (PoK) before the blasts. "He was never arrested in the bomb blast case," said a source.

Sources said Abu Bakar's name cropped up during the probe and in the statements of other accused, prompting the CBI to issue a red corner notice in November 1997. The Interpol notice alerts security agencies across the world about an accused and enjoins them to arrest the person. There is no clarity on how he was detained by the UAE police.

The blasts probe had found that Abu Bakar participated in several conspiracy meetings before the March 12, 1993 serial explosions. The meetings were conducted at various places, and prime accused Dawood Ibrahim attended several such meetings.

Before the blasts, a group of youths from Mumbai went for training to Pakistan, where they learnt to operate firearms and assemble explosives. Abu Bakar was allegedly part of this group. After the blasts, he never returned to India.

He surfaced in the UAE and was running small businesses. It is learnt that he married an Iranian woman and settled down in the Emirates.

The explosives and firearms used in the 1993 blasts were sent from Dubai. Abu Bakar is alleged to have been part of the team that helped smuggle the explosives to Dighi jetty near Murud, where it was collected by other plotters and brought to Mumbai.

Earlier, in Mumbai, in the mid-80s, he joined the Dossa brothers - Mustafa and Mohammed, both also accused in the 1993 case - and worked for them. He was into smuggling electronic goods, TV, gold and clothes from the Gulf countries to India.

It is not clear how Abu Bakar managed to dodge the agencies for so many years. The CBI is probing the 1993 blast cases, one of the world's deadliest terror acts. Twelve blasts at different locations in Mumbai had killed 257 people and injured 713 others. Property worth Rs 27 crore was damaged.