CBI to seek Bangla help to nab HuJI ultras

Hyderabad, Jan 12: CBI team, probing the May 18 Mecca Masjid blasts, may visit Bangladesh to track down two Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJI) terrorists, who fled to that country after the blast.

Highly-placed police sources said the CBI had written a letter to the Bangladesh Government, after the investigation revealed that two Bangladeshi terrorists were among the three terrorists, suspected to have planted the bombs at the masjid. Their accomplice, hailing from the city, had already been arrested.

The premier investigating agency had contacted the Government after the August 25 twin blasts here and the November 23 terror strikes in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh.

''India has not signed an extradition treaty with Bangladesh. Our police cannot arrest the Bangladeshi nationals from the country.

The Central authorities are meeting with their counterparts to help the investigating agencies to arrest HuJI terrorists under special conditions.'' ''The foreign government has responded positively to the request.

The authorites are waiting for an official reply from Bangladesh,'' they said.

''The investigation agencies would explore other options if the agencies failed to get an official reply from there,'' the sources added.

The prima facil investigations had revealed that more than 40 HuJI terrorists were involved in the blasts in the state and in Uttar Pradesh.

HuJI Commander Bilal alias Shahed was allegedly operating from that country, by recruiting poor and unemployed youth. He had established hideouts in Bangladesh, from where weapons and explosive materials, including RDX, were being smuggled into the country.

UNI