New Delhi:
Exactly 31 minutes after the blast at Varanasi killed a baby girl, an email from terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM) was sent to several media organisations, claiming responsibility for the explosion. Police sources now say the modus operandi shows that the Bhatkal brothers of the IM could have been behind the blast.
The email has been traced to Navi Mumbai - the Mujahideen hacked into an unsecured Wi-Fi connection registered in the name of a DJ, Akhil Talreja, who was released after questioning by the police. The email was composed on December 6 - a day before the blast. It says, ''Indian Mujahideen attribute this attack to December 6... the loss of their beloved Babri Masjid.'' (
Read: Varanasi blast: Indian Mujahideen email)
The wording of the email is very similar to three other IM mails received after big blasts and hacking into unsecured connections is also a trademark modus operandi of the terror group.
Police sources believe that the Indian Mujahideen group that was responsible for the car blast near Delhi's Jama Masjid in September this year might also have been responsible for the Varanasi blast yesterday. The police believes the team was groomed in UP's Azamgarh. ''No one has been detained so far. The inquiry is on," said Maharashtra's Home Minister, RR Patil.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal said, "If we analyse the way this incident took place, it is quite similar to other incidents for which the Indian Mujahideen has been responsible...there are a few people in Pakistan who work on this." The Bhatkal brothers, Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, are still in Pakistan, Dayal said.
In the last two years, the IM has sent emails after three terror attacks: the serial blasts in Ahmedabad in July 2008 followed by the serial blasts in Delhi in September that year, and then after the Jama Masjid attack earlier this year.
In each of those cases, the emails were traced to an area around Mumbai. And the logo on the letterhead matches too.
The only difference is that in those cases, the IM sent its mail within minutes of the attack. This time, there was a half-hour delay, raising questions if the mail was spoofed.
In October 2008, it was the emails sent by the IM that led to a huge breakthrough for the state. Twenty men in different leadership positions within the terror group were arrested, many of them software professionals. That left the IM rudderless and the police believes the Varanasi blast is a tactic aimed at conveying that the organisation still has the ability to strike.