Arrested HuJi militant's kin say he has no role in Jaipur blasts

Muzaffarnagar,May 23:The family of Mohammad Iqbal alias Abdur Rehman, a Harkat-ul-Jihadal Islami (HuJi) militant, held in connection with last week's Jaipur blasts, say they don't believe he has terrorist links.

It is difficult for us to believe the terror connections of Rehman, while not ruling out a case of conspiracy against him,stated his family in Muzaffarnagar.

The family further added that the news of Rehman's arrest came as a shock.

"He is being linked to god knows which controversy. I cannot believe it to be true. He used to study with me in this village after which he went to study further. Then he came back here and taught children. We recently got to know about this incident from Delhi. I absolutely have no idea about it and whether he is being victimized in some controversy or not is also not clear as well," said Yusuf, cousin of Abdur Rehman.

However, his neighbours living in his native village informed that they heard about his similar terror connection, a year back as well.

"This issue cropped up a year back as well. We heard about his connections with the militants and that he was convicted for the same, but if he was arrested in reality is something we are not aware of," said Madan Lal Sharma,a neighbour of Rehman.

Abdur Rehman was arrested in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was allegedly sent by top HuJi Commanders for the nefarious task of bombing the city.

As a follow-up action, police recovered 3.1kg of RDX, five detonators, and a timer device.

According to the police, Abdur Rehman has revealed that he met with one Babu Bhai in 2002. In 2003, he went to Bangladesh and from there to Pakistan.He underwent three months training in handling arms, ammunition and usage of explosives there.

Rehman has admitted that he also got training in making petrol bombs and time bombs with the help of watches, the police added.

It may be recalled that Jaipur witnessed a series of nine blasts, which ripped through crowded areas on May 13, claiming 63 lives. Another 216 people were wounded.

ANI