A special court for terrorism cases in Bengaluru on Monday convicted a homeopathy doctor, who was arrested in 2015 after being identified as a major supplier of explosives to the Indian Mujahideen, accused of being part of the terror group.
Dr. Syed Ismail Afaq, now 43, a homeopathic doctor from Bhatkal, was arrested on January 8, 2015 by the Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru Police after security agencies identified him as the source of the supply of ammonium nitrate to the Indian Mujahideen. From 2006 to 2013, the Indian Mujahideen carried out a series of bomb blasts across India, killing more than 200 people.
Afaq, a former leader of the Popular Front of India in Bhatkal, was convicted under sections 13 (unlawful activities) and 20 (being part of a terrorist group) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 for criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code. , and under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.
“Therefore, acting under Section 235(2) of Cr.PC, Accused No.1 is convicted for the offenses punishable under Sections 120B and 121A, Sections 13, 20, 23, and 38 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) of the IPC. ) Act, 1967, and Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act,” the special court ruled on Monday.
Two associates who helped Dr Afaq buy and store explosives to supply to the IM – Abdul Suboor, now 33, and Saddam Hussain, now 45, both of Bhatkal – were convicted under the Unlawful Activities and Explosives Act.
However the three were acquitted of committing acts of terrorism under Section 16 of the UAPA as they had no direct involvement in any of the blasts. A fourth accused, Riyaz Ahmad Saeedee, now 41, who was accused of being a conduit between IM leaders and the explosive supply group, has been acquitted of all charges.
The court has scheduled the hearing of the case on November 18.
The homeopathic doctor and his aides were arrested after security agencies stepped up tracking of IM operatives in the 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts in Hyderabad that killed 17 people. Because of this, Yasin Bhatkal, the main accused of the bomb blasts on the Nepal border, has been arrested and the chain of supplying explosives to Bhatkal has been discovered.
According to the chargesheet in the explosives supply case, IM leaders Riyaz Shahbandari and Iqbal Shahbandari, based in Pakistan and Dubai, directed Afaq in 2009 to build an explosives supply chain for the IM, following a police crackdown in 2008 after several blasts. Its top leaders have fled the country.
After the arrest of Afaq, Hussain and Suboor, investigations by the Bengaluru police and other agencies revealed that Afaq had procured and supplied explosives to the Indian Mujahideen for the July 13, 2011, Mumbai blasts, August 1, 2012, Pune blasts. and the February 21, 2013, blast in Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad.
“This is the missing link in some of the blasts carried out by the IM where the source of supply was indicated as coastal Karnataka. Several IM men who were arrested said they had received ammonium nitrate from unknown persons in the Udupi-Mangalore area but the real identity of the supplier was not known,” a police official said in January. 8, 2015 said after his arrest.
Dr Afaq’s aide, Zainulabidin alias Zahid Sheikh, was deported from the UAE in 2015 after he was identified as the man who planted explosives in the July 13, 2011, Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar serial blasts that killed 23 people. He is an accused in the 2011 Mumbai case.
Police identified IM’s explosive supply chain after the arrest of two key IM operatives, Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar, and analysis of internet chats between them and Pakistan-based IM founder Riyaz Shahbandari alias Riyaz Bhatkal during the 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts. In 2013.
After his arrest in January 2015, police seized a large quantity of ammonium nitrate, detonators, electronic timer devices, digital circuits, wires, PVC pipes, gel-based explosives and fuel oil from Abdul Suboor’s house in Bhatkal.
They said Dr Afaq procured explosives through his associates on the pretext of using them for legitimate work such as fishing and later secretly supplied them to Indian Mujahideen members to detonate them in the country, police said. During the investigation of Dr Afak, security agencies also accessed Internet chat transcripts of conversations with Riyaz Bhatkal using the Nimbuz messenger service.
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