Introduction: Chief organiser captured alive in Calcutta
The jigsaw pieces in the January 22 American Center attack in Calcutta have begun to fall into place with police today catching one of the suspects involved in the conspiracy - not dead, but alive.
For the first time since the strike in which four policemen were gunned down by motorcycle-borne assailants, Calcutta police also tasted success when they picked up Jamaluddin Nasir from a congested eastern neighbourhood.
Nasir, described by the police as the "chief organiser" of the attack, had rented the house in Hazaribagh that was raided early Monday morning. In the ensuing "encounter", Mohammad Idris and Salim had died. Idris, according to the police, had confessed to firing outside the American Center. The person riding the motorcycle, Sadaqat, has still not been found.
With Nasir, 30, the police also arrested Dilip Singh, 35, said to be a real estate promoter.
Calcutta police chief Sujoy Chakraborty said Nasir is the "current Man Friday" of Dubai-based Aftab Ansari who had claimed responsibility for the January 22 attack.
"The two militants, Mohammed Idris, alias Zahid, and Sadaqat, who sprayed bullets on policemen in front of the American Center, were in close touch with Nasir during their stay in the city,'' Chakraborty said.
The police recovered the motorcycle (WB01P 2144) which, they said, the assailants had used during the strike and a private car (BRK 4907), described as the getaway vehicle.
Singh is known to have sold three flats in Tiljala, where Nasir led the police, to Asif Reza Khan. While claiming responsibility, Ansari had said the attack had been carried out by AR Commandos, named after Asif Reza, to avenge his death in an encounter in Gujarat.
"Idris and Sadaqat had stayed in Asif's well-furnished apartment before and after the attack,'' the police commissioner said.
"Nasir and Asif studied in Beniapukur High Madarsa from the nursery level. They were close friends. We have enough evidence to suggest that Nasir took over Asif's role after his death,'' Chakraborty added.
In a simultaneous success in Gaya district of Bihar, a joint team of Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar police arrested a person called Hasan Imam, who, they said, might lead them to other members of the gang that organised the January 22 attack.
Nasir told the police about his long association with Asif. He said he was introduced by Asif to Idris, Salim and Sadaqat in April last year as leather merchants from north India.
Relating how the police got to Nasir, Chakraborty said Soumen Mitra, the deputy commissioner of police, detective department, while probing in Hazaribagh had found a telephone number (2846918). "We traced the number to a madarsa at Beniapukur. Investigations revealed that Nasir's father, Fatehuddin, is a senior teacher of the madarsa,'' Chakraborty said.
Fatehuddin told detectives, who had gone in the guise of Nasir's business associates, that Nasir was staying at his in-laws' place at P-13 Darga Road.
Around midnight on Tuesday Nasir was pulled out of his sleep. He took detectives to a building at 1 Tiljala Lane. Dilip Singh, who had constructed the building, had sold a flat there to Asif. Detectives forced open the door and entered the flat. Inside, they found forged letterheads and papers of the CBI and Calcutta police.
Nasir said Idris and Sadaqat had informed him by e-mail that they would arrive at Howrah station by Jodhpur Express on January 16. "Nasir drove the car to pick up the two from the station. They drove to the Tiljala Lane apartment from the station. The finer details of the operation were planned by Idris, Sadaqat and Salim in the Tiljala apartment,'' Chakraborty said.
After the January 22 operation, they returned to the flat - the strike bike and car were parked in the space there. "Idris and Sadaqat stayed in the apartment on January 22 and took a taxi to Howrah station on January 23,'' Chakraborty added. They boarded the Gaya Passenger train to reach Hazaribagh.
"On not seeing them on January 23, I went over to Hazaribagh, thinking that they might have gone there. I had rented the Hazaribagh house on behalf of Asif for our business,'' he told the police.
Nasir said he saw Idris, Sadaqat
and Salim there. "When I quizzed them about the attack on the American
Center, they told me that one has to do such things for the sake of motherland
(Pakistan). I quickly left the area and returned to the city,'' Nasir told
detectives.