Hunt intensified for untraced terror handlers tied to east UP

VARANASI: Varanasi: Following Monday's explosion near Red Fort in New Delhi, investigation agencies have intensified efforts to trace over half a dozen terror handlers linked to Azamgarh in eastern UP. Names of several such handlers - including Azamgarh's Dr Shahnawaz, Bada Sajid, Salman, Khalid, Arif Junaid, Dr Asadullah Akhtar and Mirza Shadab Beg - had surfaced after the Shramjeevi Express blast in Jaunpur (2005), Batla House encounter (2008), and Delhi high court blast (2011), but they remain untraced. Agencies are now piecing together the puzzle to locate them. "All police chiefs in Varanasi's districts have been asked to start a fresh exercise to track terror handlers," said ADG (Varanasi) Piyush Mordia. A manhunt has also been launched for Wasif Billa, a terror trainer in Kerala declared absconder by NIA, and for Shamim, a Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami ultra from Chandauli wanted in the 2006 Sankat Mochan and Cantonment railway station blasts. Police had announced a reward of Rs 20,000 for Shamim, but he was never found. Only the mastermind, Waliullah, was arrested and convicted. Agencies had later received inputs of Shamim's presence in Bangladesh.

None of the accused in the 2005 Dasaswamedh Ghat terror attack were identified. In the Shramjeevi Express case, which killed 14 and injured 62, two Bangladeshi HuJI operatives were convicted in 2023. In 2007, Indian Mujahideen took over HuJI's eastern Uttar Pradesh network and carried out the Kutcheri blasts, followed by the 2010 Dashashwamedh Ghat blast that killed a two-year-old girl. Agencies are also tracking the network of Aftab Ansari, lodged in Kolkata jail after being sentenced to death for the 2002 American Centre attack.