Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will seek the custody of a man arrested on Thursday night by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), around 25 years after he allegedly played a role in receiving arms and explosives as part of the conspiracy behind the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The accused, Ahmed Sheikh alias ‘Ahmed Lambu’, had allegedly undergone terror training in Pakistan and had even met the blasts' alleged mastermind and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, said sources who are part of the probe.
A CBI officer said, “We will take the accused's custody via the court.”
A Gujarat police source said, “The accused had played a part when explosives like RDX (research department explosive) and arms and ammunition were brought to Maharashtra at places like the Dighi jetty via sea. Lambu had also been sent to Pakistan to undergo training in the use of arms and ammunitions and had met Dawood Ibrahim. His role is mentioned in the CBI case chargesheet.”
Lambu was nabbed by Gujarat ATS based on the specific information about his location at a place near the border with Maharashtra.
Deepak Salvi, the CBI's special public prosecutor in the blasts case, said, “The accused had played an active role in the 1993 blasts and was involved in the landing of arms and ammunition as well as RDX at Dighi, Raigad district.”
According to Mr Salvi, Lambu had been sent to Pakistan for the training with the help of Mustafa Dossa, the 1993 blasts convict, who died last June after suffering a cardiac arrest. The CBI had in its probe found that Dossa was allegedly member of the "core group of conspirators". Dossa was accused of sending arms and ammunition from Dubai and Pakistan to Dighi on January 9, 1993.
On March 12, 1993, the country's commercial capital witnessed a series of 12 bomb explosions, orchestrated allegedly at the behest of Dawood and absconding co-mastermind Tiger Memon, which took place one after another in about a span of two hours. Two-hundred-and-fifty-seven human lives were lost, 713 persons were seriously injured and property worth about Rs 27 crore was destroyed.
This was the first terrorist attack in the world where RDX was used.
