A special court for terrorism cases in Bengaluru Monday convicted a homoeopathy doctor, who was arrested in 2015 after being identified as a key supplier of explosives for the Indian Mujahideen, on charges of being part of a terrorist group.
Dr Syed Ismail Afaque, now 43, a homoeopathic doctor from Bhatkal, was arrested by the Bengaluru police’s Central Crime Branch on January 8, 2015, after being identified by security agencies as the source of supply of ammonium nitrate to Indian Mujahideen. The Indian Mujahideen carried out a series of bomb blasts across India killing over 200 people between 2006 and 2013,
Afaque, a former leader of the Popular Front of India in Bhatkal, was convicted under sections 13 (unlawful activities) and 20 (being part of a terrorist group) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967, for criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, and under the Explosives Substances Act, 1908.
“Hence, acting under Section 235(2) of the Cr.P.C., Accused No. 1 is convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 120B and 121A of the IPC, Sections 13, 20, 23, and 38 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act,” the special court ruled Monday.
Two associates who helped Dr Afaque procure and store explosives for the supply to IM — Abdul Suboor, now 33, and Saddam Hussain, now 45, both from Bhatkal — were convicted for unlawful activities and under the Explosives Act.
The three men were, however, acquitted of charges of committing a terrorist act under Section 16 of the UAPA on account of not being directly involved in any blasts. A fourth accused Riyaz Ahmed Sayeedi, now 41, who was accused of being a conduit between IM leaders and the explosives supply group has been acquitted of all charges.
The court has posted the case for hearing the sentences for the accused on December 18.
The homoeopathic doctor and his associates were arrested after security agencies stepped up the tracking of IM operatives in 2013 following the Dilsukhnagar blast in Hyderabad in which 17 people were killed. This led to the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, a key accused in the blasts, on the Nepal border and the identification of the explosive supply chain in Bhatkal.
As per the chargesheet in the explosives supply case, Pakistan- and Dubai-based IM leaders Riyaz Shahbandari and Iqbal Shahbandari instructed Afaque in 2009 to build an explosives supply chain for the IM, after a police crackdown in the wake of multiple blasts in 2008 forced its top leaders to flee the country.
Investigations by the Bengaluru police and other agencies after the arrest of Afaque, Hussain and Suboor revealed that Afaque procured and supplied explosives through his associates to the Indian Mujahideen for the July 13, 2011, blasts in Mumbai, August 1, 2012, blast in Pune and the February 21, 2013, blast at Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad.
“This is the missing link in some of the blasts carried out by the IM where the source of supply was indicated as coastal Karnataka. Many IM men who were arrested stated that they received ammonium nitrate from unidentified persons in the Udupi-Mangalore region but the real identity of the supplier was not known,” a police officer said after the January 8, 2015, arrests.
An associate of Dr Afaque, Zainulabideen alias Zahid Sheikh, was deported from the UAE in 2015 after he was identified as the person who delivered the explosives for the July 13, 2011, Zaveri Bazaar serial blasts in Mumbai which killed 23 people. He is an accused in the 2011 Mumbai case.
The police identified the explosive supply chain of the IM after the arrest of two major IM operatives Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar and analysis of internet chats between them and Pakistan-based IM founder Riyaz Shahbandari alias Riyaz Bhatkal in the period leading to the 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts in 2013.
The police seized a large quantity of ammonium nitrate, detonators, electronic timer devices, digital circuits, wires, PVC pipes, gel-based explosive material and fuel oil from Abdul Suboor’s house in Bhatkal following the arrests in January 2015.
They said Dr Afaque procured explosives through his associates under the pretext of using them for legitimate activities like fishing, and later supplied them secretly to members of the Indian Mujahideen to carry out blasts in the country, said the police. During the investigation into Dr Afaque, security agencies also accessed Internet chat transcripts of his conversations with Riyaz Bhatkal using the Nimbuzz messenger service.
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