Delhi blast: Investigators detain and grill 5 in J&K

Jammu and Kashmir police have picked-up five people including a cyber-café owner after the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) e-mail, claiming responsibility for Delhi bomb blast, was traced to Kishtiwar.

Police was informed by the NIA about the e-mail and within hours they traced the Global Cyber Café in Kishtiwar and picked up its owner and two others including his employee.

During questioning, sources said, one of the detainees pointed fingers of suspicion at student of local college who was frequenting the café. Police, according to sources, later picked two local college students for questioning.

What is complicating things is that the café owner was not maintaining the register of the clients and the CCTV in the premises was not working at all. Investigators are relying on detainees’ information to track the person who sent the email to the media houses.

Global Cyber Café has six ports and the police investigators have seized the computer number three which is suspected to have been used to send the email to media houses.  

 “Obviously certain leads have been shared (by NIA). Investigations are ongoing and we will share our findings with NIA and they will then decide how to take it further”, said Omar Abdullah, J&K chief minister.

NIA team from Delhi is also joining the police investigation to unravel the truth behind the e-mail.

“I am not in a position to share any detail with you other than the fact the various leads have been shared with us. We are at the advanced stage of investigating the leads”, said Abdullah.

Abdullah said the nation demands answers and it is the responsibility of those who are tasked with protecting the country and they must provide answers as to who is responsible for this. "And what can be done to ensure that attacks like this do not succeed in future”, he said.

Police is modeled its investigations on three angles. One it could be a prank to divert attention, second if the boys have sent the mail who are they working for and who others are involved and third Kishtiwar has been the hub of HUJI previously and does it really share any link with blast in Delhi.

Kishtiwar has been considered stronghold of HUJI and several commanders were either arrested or killed by the security forces during the last 20 years of militancy.

In April last year security forces dealt a serious blow to the HUJI when they killed three of its top militants including its divisional commander Dawood. The other two slain commanders were identified as Nazir Ahmed alias Furkan and Mohammad Ishaq of HUJI.  

In December 2008 J&K police achieved a major breakthrough when they arrested the HUJI chief commander Suhail Faisal from Jammu railway station. A resident of Kishtiwar district in Jammu, he was involved in several killings, fidayeen attacks and blasts in UP. He was a close associate of slain HUJI chief Saba.