Police search Imran's flat in Vadodara

Vadodara, Aug 19 (UNI) A team of Ahmedabad crime branch today conducted a thorough search in the Bawamanpura flat of Imran Ibrahim Sheikh, a key accused in the July 26 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts.

The team, which arrived here this afternoon with two of the accused -- Imran Sheikh and Sajid Mansoori, spent nearly three hours to complete their task with the help of members of the Anti-Terrorist Squad and forensic experts from Gandhinagar.

City police commissioner Rakesh Asthana was also present during the search operation.

The two-room flat in the Akmal Complex was earlier sealed by the city police after it was revealed during interrogation of the accused that the place was used by the conspirators, including their mastermind Abdul Subhan alias Taufique, for the purpose of organising meetings of SIMI activists and making bombs.

Police sources said while Taufique stayed in the flat for a couple of days to help assemble the bombs four days before the blasts in Ahmedabad, Sajid Mansoori, who was the man behind the execution of the whole plan, lived there for nearly four years from 2004 with a fake name.

Both Mansoori and Imran, who are now in the custody of the crime branch, were also scheduled to be taken to Pavagadh forest near Halol, where a select group of SIMI activists drawn from different states had undergone arms training in January this year.

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