Varanasi blasts 4 accused untraceable, mastermind facing trial

Varanasi, Mar 6 (UNI) A year after two powerful explosions killed 18 people in this temple town, four accused in the case remain untraceable even as the blasts mastermind faces a lengthy judicial trial.

Five ultras are accused in the three cases -- Varanasi railway station blast, Sankatmochan blast and pressure cooker borne explosive recovery case. An accused, Mohd Jubair was killed by the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police on the outskirts of Lucknow the day after the March 6 blasts.

The alleged mastermind of the twin blasts Mohd Waliullah, hailing from Phoolpur (Allahabad), was arrested on April 5, 2006 by the Lucknow police and has since been in judicial custody.

Presently, cases against Waliullah, in which chargesheets have been filed by the district and Government Railway Police (GRP), are being heard before a court in the Ghaziabad district.

The district police has also filed a chargesheet against Waliullah under relevant provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) following permission by the UP government to try him for sedition.

A total of 63 witnesses have been listed by the district police in the pressure cooker borne explosive recovery and Sankatmochan blast case, while the GRP has submitted with the court a list of 55 witnesses in the Varanasi railway station blast case.

The three cases which were transferred to a sessions court here from the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in July last year were later transferred for hearing to a Ghaziabad court following an Allahabad High Court order.

The HC had ordered the transfer of the cases to Ghaziabad while hearing an application filed by Waliullah seeking the transfer of cases.

While the legal process goes on in Ghaziabad there is no trace of the remaining four accused including Mohd Shamim, a native of neighbouring Chandauli district, Mustafiz, Bashir alias Bashiruddin and Zakaria -- all Bangladeshi nationals.

During the course of investigations, Waliullah admitted meeting the three Bangladeshi nationals at a 'madarsa' in Saharanpur district of UP and later accompanying them to Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, Waliullah was indoctrinated into activities of Harkat-ul-Jehade-Islami (HUJI), an extended arm of banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The four later along with Mohd Shamim decided to trigger blasts in Varanasi.

While the officials at the Senior Police Superintendent (SSP) office here have termed the four accused as ''untraceable,'' STF sources claim that all four are in Bangladesh. Shamim, a native of Launda village of Chandauli district, is married to a girl hailing from Mirpur (Bangladesh), who lives in the Chandauli village with her children.

Mirpur is the hotbed of HUJI-ISI activities in Bangladesh and Shamim, Mustafiz, Bashir and Zakaria were last located in that part of Bangladeshi territory, STF sources added.

A largely porous Indo-Bangladesh border edging West Bengal has helped the four HUJI terrorists escape from India and the four terrorists can be only be nabbed when India and Bangladesh coordinate efforts, the sources maintained.

UNI