Darbhanga blast: Accused stayed near intel HQ for two decades, says NIA

HYDERABAD: The Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) sleeper cell operating from Hyderabad is a blemish in the anti-terror performance sheet of Telangana’s Counter Intelligence (CI) Cell, as one of the accused, who as per the NIA probe, even visited Pakistan, has been operating from the city for about two decades, staying 2.5 kilometres away from state intelligence head quarters.
NIA’s latest arrest of alleged LeT operatives Nasir Mailk and Irfan Malik from Hyderabad indicated that they have made the IED responsible for blast on platform number 1 at Darbhanga railway station on June 17 in Hyderabad and sent it to Bihar by train in a parcel with an intention to cause incendiary explosion in the moving train. Only after the blast, alerted by the Bihar police, CI cell sleuths tracked down the brothers and the transnational terror conspiracy came to light during the subsequent NIA probe.
NIA sources confirmed that Nasir Malik visited Pakistan with a visa to meet the relatives in 2012 and during that period, he also met LeT handlers operating from Pakistan.“Nasir was bringing ready made garments from Delhi, UP for sale. For about decade, he has been running a small shop in Mallepally. His brother came to the city and joined him few months ago,” said an intelligence official.
A neighbour Azad Khan told media personnel that the brothers used to stay with their mother in a flat and Nasir used to spend long hours talking over the phone at a ground near his house.
“None of the locals found anything suspicious about the brothers. We believe that they operated without any involvement from locals, a standard method used by sleeper cell operatives. So they have not come under our surveillance,” said a special branch official.
CI cell was formed by in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state way back in 1999. The last terror blast city witnessed was in February 2013 at Dilsukhnagar and ever since the arrest of Indian Mujahideen (IM) key operative, Yasin Bhatkal and other associates in 2013, attempts have been made by IS influenced modules to make IEDs in city but NIA busted the modules with CI cell support.
Docus on IEDs seized from two ‘LeT men’:
NIA sleuths seized documents pertaining to preparation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during searches conducted at the rented house of two alleged LeT operatives in Hyderabad. After the arrest of Mohammed Nasir Malik and his brother Imran Malik at New Mallepally in Hyderabad on Wednesday, NIA sleuths searched their house. Among the items recovered by the NIA were various documents pertaining to procedure for fabrication of IEDs,” said an NIA official.