How these Pak linked Lashkar operatives from Hyderabad packaged a parcel bomb for Darbhanga blast

New Delhi, July 01: The National Investigation Agency has arrested 2 Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists in connection with the Darbhanga, Bihar railway station blast case. The arrested persons are Imran Malik and Mohammad Nasir Khan, both residents of Nampally in Hyderabad. They originally hail from Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, the UP police had arrested a father son duo-Mohammad Haji Salim and his son Mohammad Kafil from Kairana, UP in connection with the same case.

The case was first registered in June 2021 following an explosion on Platform 1 of the Darbhanga Railway Station. The parcel in which the explosive was placed was booked at Secunderabad and arrived by train. The NIA later took over the probe.

The accused persons were arrested from Hyderabad on June 30 2021. Preliminary investigations revealed that this strike was part of a trans-national conspiracy hatched by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba to execute terror acts across the country and cause large scale damage to life and property.

Nasir and Khan had acted on the instructions of their handlers in Pakistan. The two accused who are brothers fabricated an incendiary IED and packed it in a parcel of cloth and booked the same in a long distance train from Secunderabad to Darbhanga.

The NIA learnt that the aim of the accused was to cause an explosion in the train, which in turn would have led to a fire breaking out resulting in loss of lives and property. It was found that Khan had visited Pakistan in the year 2012 and had received training from his handlers in the fabrication of IED from locally available channels. He along with his brother Imran was in touch with Pakistan based handlers of LeT over encrypted communication platforms, the NIA said.

While credible information about the connection of the accused persons has been found with the ISI, the probe also found that these persons had taken instructions from their handlers-Iqbal Khana and Asif Khana of Pakistan. Both brothers and Khana are natives of Kairana in Uttar Pradesh. Khana had taken shelter in Pakistan and is one of the most wanted terrorists.

Nasir, the investigation found had visited Pakistan three on the pretext of meeting his blood relatives. In Pakistan he was radicalised by Khana.