HUJI operates activities from Bidar: SIT

Hyderabad, Sep 5 (UNI) The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the August 25 twin blasts that claimed 44 lives in the city, has found during their investigation that Harkat-Ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI), a terrorist organisation operating from Bangladesh, used Bidar as the main base to trigger blasts in South India.

According to police sources here, the twin blasts at Lumbini park and Gokul Chat and the May 18 Mecca blasts in Hyderabad were planned there.

HUJI Chief Commander Shahed alias Bilal, the mastermind behind the blasts, had established his hideout at Bidar in Northern Karnataka. Bilal was operating his terror activities from Bangladesh with the assistance of his associates living in Hyderabad and Bidar.

Bilal had also sent some Bangladeshi youth to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and some parts of Kerala to establish HUJI bases to take up terror activities in a planned manner. Two Bangladeshi women have been arrested in Hyderabad and Chennai by the SIT during their investigation.

The sources said RDX, weighing more than ten kg, was sent to Hyderabad from Bidar after it reached there from Bangladesh in February 2007 to prepare Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Three people from Bidar -- Muhammad, an explosive dealer who met Bilal in 2005 in Bidar, Ali Khan, who introduced Muhammad to Bilal, and Shakeel Ahmed, who were absconding, have helped Bilal in setting up HUJI's sleeper cells.

The sources said HUJI was also planning to trigger blasts in other parts of South India.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad police were conducting raids in the city to nab the Bangladeshi youth who were staying without passport.

UNI