Posted on 09/02/2007 6:03:47 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
HYDERABAD: With pressure mounting on Bangladesh to act against Islamist terror groups operating from its soil, the police in Dhaka have arrested a key accused in the Hyderabad twin blasts.
Abu Hamza alias Asif - a close aide of Abdul Shahid alias Bilal, the commander of Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) - was arrested on Saturday from a lodge in Dhaka. He is also an accused in the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in May.
Hamza, a 32-year-old Hyderabadi, had left India in 2004. The Andhra police believe he has been helping Bilal in executing various terror tasks and also recruiting for HuJI in Hyderabad. In the last few years, Hamza has frequently crossed over from Bangladesh into India and it is also learnt that Bilal and his brother Mazid - who was arrested in Hyderabad late on Saturday night - would often meet him.
Bilal's father Abdul Wahed, who has denied his son's involvement in the blasts, said plainclothes men picked up his younger son from his home late on Saturday night.
Police have refused to confirm the arrest of Mazid, but a source claims that cops are questioning him about his role in the twin blasts and the Mecca Masjid explosion.
The Hyderabad police learnt about Hamza's involvement in the twin blasts when they interrogated Abdul Sattar, a renegade HuJI militant currently lodged in jail.
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