The five alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives accused of executing the Patna blasts
Four of the alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives suspected to be involved in the October 27 Patna blasts targeting Narendra Modi's rally, reportedly stayed in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur for over a fortnight after the incident.
The suspects - Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu, Haider Ali, Numan Ansari and Taufeeq Ansari - allegedly left Raipur on November 9, with the police hot on their trail. The police say the four men allegedly planned to run away to Nepal via Motihari in Bihar, but decided to hide in Raipur. A fifth suspect, Mojibullah, was reportedly not with them.
These main accused are alleged members of the newly-formed branch of banned terror group Indian Mujahideen in Jharkhand. The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the Patna blasts, has said that this group was also responsible for July's multiple blasts in Bodh Gaya in Bihar.
The Raipur hideout was revealed by eight men arrested in Chhattisgarh last week, all allegedly members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) believed to be closely linked to the Indian Mujahideen. The arrested men reportedly knew and helped the IM operatives allegedly involved in the serial blasts which killed six people and injured 83 just before Mr Modi's 'Hunkaar rally' in Patna.
By the time the police learnt about them, the four blast accused had escaped from Raipur. The NIA has announced a cash reward of upto Rs 10 lakh for any information that could lead to the arrest of these four and another key suspect.
One of the eight arrested men is Umer Siddiqui, a private tutor and the alleged chief of SIMI in Chhattisgarh. He was reportedly arrested after his phone conversation with an unknown person in Arabic on October 17 alerted the police; words like sacrifice, Gujarat and Narendra Modi allegedly came up in that conversation.
Umer allegedly told the police that he knew all the blast accused and at least two of them stayed with him till November 9. The others arrested from Chhattisgarh include boutique owner Azizullah, auto driver Abdul Wahid, property dealer Mohammad Ajiz and garage owner Raju Garage. They had allegedly been under surveillance for over three years.