IS man behind UP train blast IAF ex-staffer: NIA

IS man behind UP train blast IAF ex-staffer: NIA Lucknow: The National Investigation Agency‘s probe into the Ujjain-Bhopal train blast this March has revealed that two of the suspects had, in December 2016, transported the bomb from Kanpur to Lucknow on a motorcycle sporting the Indian Air Force (IAF) flag.

One of them, identified as Ghaus Mohammad Khan, is a former IAF employee. A Lucknow-based module of the so called Islamic State (IS) allegedly carried out the March 7 blast, which resulted in no deaths. Eight members of the module, including Ghaus, were subsequently arrested from Kanpur, Lucknow and parts of Madhya Pradesh, while one, Saifullah, was killed on March 9 in an encounter with the UP anti-terrorist squad (ATS) at a Lucknow hideout.

The probe has revealed that members of the module also used buses to transport their arms and ammunition between Kanpur and Lucknow over the last two years.

The NIA chargesheet, a copy of which is with TOI, reveals how the head of the module, Atif Muzaffar, organised firing drills in open fields near Kanpur. They also allegedly shot a school teacher, Ramesh Chandra Shukla, there in October just to “test their shooting skills and create panic”.

“Muzaffar learnt bomb-making from an online magazine called ‘Inspire’ between April and June 2016. He had prepared a write-up, ‘Bomb Guide’, which was recovered from his laptop. The group made bombs and carried out rehearsals before the blast in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train, with an aim to gain capability to cause fear…among the general public,” the NIA says in the chargesheet, submitted before a Lucknow court on August 8. The revelations have triggered a concern in UP police on whether there were gaps in security drills on national and state highways despite credible inputs on IS’ reach among the youth in the state.

The module allegedly made five bombs between August 2016 and March 2017. According to the chargesheet “The fifth one, a six-inch pipe bomb, was used in the Ujjain-Bhopal train. It was first planted at a rally of Barelvis but didn’t explode.”