‘Missing’ 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict nabbed in Kanpur

Suspecting that Ansari may have gone to UP’s Sant Kabir Nagar district, Mumbai STF contacted UP Police and briefed them. UP DGP Om Prakash Singh said that UP’s Inspector General, Special Task Force (STF), was contacted on Thursday night.

“UP STF activated its network and arrested Ansari from Kanpur on Friday. After coming out of a mosque in Kanpur, Ansari was heading towards a railway station with a boy when STF personnel spotted him. They arrested him after confirming his identity,” said the DGP.

Ansari was later brought to Lucknow. Police claimed to have recovered Rs 47,780 in cash, an Aadhaar card, a cellphone and a pocket diary from him. The police said they had not ruled out the possibility that he was trying to escape.

The police claimed that Ansari was involved in around 50 blasts in the 1990s, including the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and Pune blasts.
Ansari, who is allegedly a specialist in TNT and timer bombs, was suspected to be involved with Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), SIMI and Indian Mujahideen, police said.

During interrogation, the police said, Ansari told them that he was trained in Pakistan and was in touch with HuJI operatives. He reportedly came to India in 1992 through Bangladesh. In 1988, Hyderabad resident Azam Gauri reportedly introduced him to alleged terror operative Karim Tunda and he (Ansari) learnt how to make bombs from him.