Absconder in 1993 blasts nabbed from airport

Mumbai: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday nabbed one of the main accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Munaf Halari, while he was in transit at the Mumbai International Airport on a fake Pakistani passport.

ATS officials laid a trap at the airport and apprehended Halari (55) when he was about to continue his journey to Dubai via a plane that had arrived from Nairobi. Halari, a close associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s gang, had arranged for the two-wheelers that were used to load the explosives that wreaked havoc in the congested lanes of south Mumbai.

Halari was on the radar of the Gujarat ATS following the arrest of five Pakistani nationals in January off the Gujarat coast with drugs worth `175 crore in their possession, he said.

The questioning of the Pakistani nationals had revealed the role of Halari in drug smuggling, the ACP told reporters at Gujarat ATS headquarters here.

The probe has revealed that D gang associate Tiger Memon got Halari a Pakistani passport in the name of Anwar Muhammad with the help of Pakistani authorities,” said the Gujarat ATS officer.

Though a red-corner notice (RCN) had been issued against him, Halari entered India twice on a Pakistani passport after going into hiding in 1993, he said.

An RCN is a kind of international arrest warrant for fugitives where Interpol requests its member countries to arrest or detain them, he said. Halari last entered India in 2014 from Pakistan through the Wagah-Attari border in Punjab and visited Mumbai, from where he hails, he said.

The Gujarat ATS has seized his Pakistani passport, which was renewed twice by authorities in the neighbouring country, he said. “With the help of Memon, Halari then settled in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where he started a business under his new identity. “On the instructions of Memon, he entered into the foodgrain export-import business. However, his main intention behind starting this business was to smuggle explosives and contraband into India,” said the ATS officer.

The interrogation of the five Pakistani nationals arrested in January had revealed the consignment belonged to one Haji Hasan of Karachi, who was in touch with Halari, he said.

Hasan had even promised to smuggle explosives into Gujarat through the coast, said the officer. The accused will be produced before a court for remand, he said.