Patna serial blasts suspect 're-arrested' in Kanpur

Updated

Lucknow, Oct 31 (IANS): Terror suspect Meher Alam, accused of involvement in Sunday's Patna serial blasts and who escaped from the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), was arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur city late Thursday.

While police officials refused to comment on the high profile arrest, sources said he was picked up from the Sapt Kranti Express headed for Delhi.

Alam, 25, was not only a terror suspect in the string of bombings that took place in Patna Sunday before Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was to address a rally, he is also suspected for the Bodhgaya blasts in July this year.

Officials said following his re-arrest, the terror accused was taken to New Delhi by NIA sleuths. "I am not aware of the operation but the state police must have only provided logistical support at best," a senior official told IANS.

He escaped late Wednesday from a toilet in Bihar's Muzaffarpur while being brought here from Darbhanga district.

Officials, however, were unwilling to confirm whether the terror suspect made good his escape Wednesday night or early Thursday.

While some police officials said the escape took place late Wednesday, there were also those who said it happened Thursday morning.

Six of the seven blasts took place at Patna's Gandhi Maidan. The seventh explosion was at the railway station.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said Imtiaz along with Arshad came to Patna between Oct 8 and 10 to carry out recce of various sites that could be targeted.

Arshad Alam, 24, a resident of East Champaran district's Alauli village, was arrested by a team of NIA and Bihar Police Tuesday.

"Arshad was arrested on the basis of information provided by Mohammad Imtiaz Ansari, one of the two suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives arrested from Patna junction soon after the first bomb exploded," a police official said.

A second terror suspect who was injured in the blasts is battling for life at a government hospital here.

Imtiaz, a resident of Ranchi, is suspected to be the brain behind the blasts. He was arrested from the Patna railway junction after a bomb exploded in a toilet on platform No.10 Sunday morning.

Ainul alias Tarique, the second suspect, was apprehended while he was crying in pain at the Patna railway junction toilet soon after a bomb which he was trying to fit with a timer exploded.