New Delhi: NIA chargesheet reveals that a video motivated the group of jihadis who carried out the attacks on Narendra Modi's rally during election campaign in Patna in 2013. SIMI planned to target Narendra Modi for his assassination but later changed their plan and orchestrated the blast on the rally day in Patna.
These group of men were motivated by showing the videos of 9/11 attack at a guest house in Barnawapara forest in Raipur. This video were recovered from a laptop by a man, identified as Haider Ali, to the other men, who were prepared to carry out the assassination of then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.
Haider also revealed that they carried the bombs in bus, a day before Modi's rally. "They started from Ranchi late on the evening of October 26, 2013 by Aditya Vijay bus service and reached Patna in the early hours of October 27, 2013. All of them deboarded the bus near Patna junction railway station. From there, the group divided itself into pairs... Since Imtiyaz Ansari and Tariq Alam were sporting beard so it was decided by the group that they will plant the bombs somewhere between Patna junction railway station and Jakkanpur police station, which was a crowded place..", says chargesheet.
Haider Ali is now under custody and is also NIA witness. He also disclosed that the planning of the attacks started in 2011.
He also informed that, "the attack on WTC was carried out by the Al-Qaeda".
Chargesheet filed by NIA last month also reveals that "For targeting Modi, a plan was made by Haider and Umer Siddiqui (both arrested). They also felt that the leaders of the BJP were responsible for the riots in Muzzafarnagar last year. For this purpose, initially one person was motivated to become a suicide bomber by Haider and Umer."
The charge sheet further states, "Haider then decided to conduct recee of the election rally to be held at Ambikapur in Chattisgarh on September 7, 2013. He again discussed the plan of attacking Modi with the person who was motivated by them but he refused. Thereafter, Haider asked Umer to prepare two persons including accused Azharuddin Qureshi for the task of attacking Modi. Haider also prepared a suicide jacket packed with explosives to be used for attacking Modi. However, the same was not found to be suitable and the idea was dropped."
While planning the attacks on Narendra Modi, Haider also kept observed the situation of the communal riots in UP's Muzzafarnagar.
The NIA chargesheet says, "After Muzzafarnagar riots, Haider visited Mirzapur and asked his followers to get ready for a situation, whenever riots like the one at Muzzafarnagar breaks out. Haider also asked his contact Fakhruddin to arrange gelatin rods which were promptly arranged by him through his contact. Haider allegedly also transferred a sim of Rs.25000 in the bank account of one Ahmad Hussain from Canara Bank for arranging 100 gelatin rods. "
According to NIA, the money to finance the attack came from the stolen gold given to Haider by arrested SIMI ideologue Abu Faisal, who is alleged to have looted gold ornaments worth several crores in Madhya Pradesh. "..During the year 2010-11, Haider started giving stolen gold ornaments to Firoz Aslam, now arrested and chargesheeted, and this continued till the last quarter of the year 2012. The gold ornaments were stolen by Faisal and his associates from various places in Madhya Pradesh. These ornaments used to be melted by Firoz and the same used to be sold in the local market and the money exchanged in lieu of these ornaments was handed over to Haider," states the chargesheet.
In its chargesheet, the agency further alleged that Haider who was also behind last year Bodh Gaya shrine blast "was aware cylinder bombs which were used in Bodh Gaya blasts did not have a big impact, so the accused decided to use elbow pipe for planting the same at the rally and to procure raw material visited Mirzapur."
