According to the ADG, Taushif Khan was operating under the name Ateek and was working as a school teacher for the last nine years in Gaya's Karmauni village under Dobhi police station
Three suspected terrorists, including the key accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case, were arrested on Wednesday in Bihar's Gaya district, around 100 kms from the state capital, the police said on Thursday.
"Based on specific information, two persons were apprehended from a cyber cafe in Gaya on Wednesday. During the course of interrogation, they were identified as Taushif Khan and Sanah Khan and their links to the Ahmedabad blasts came to the fore. When our intelligence agencies contacted their counterparts in Gujarat, it was confirmed that Taushif was wanted as the main accused in the 2008 case," said Additional Director General of Police, Headquarters, AK Singhal.
According to the ADG, Taushif was operating under the name Ateek and was working as a school teacher for the last nine years in Gaya's Karmauni village under Dobhi police station. This has been his hideout since the July 2008 serial blasts, which claimed more than 50 lives. The third arrest by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Bihar Police was of Sarwar Khan, whose name cropped up as one of their contact persons during preliminary interrogation.
It was a cyber cafe owner who tipped off the police about the first two suspects. "When I asked for their identification cards, they didn't furnish any, neither were they able to tell their names or what they did. I found something amiss and informed the police immediately," the cafe owner said.
Strict security arrangements are already in place in Gaya due to the ongoing "Pitripaksh mela", where thousands of devotees from the country and abroad participate. However, following the arrests, security has been beefed up in Mahabodhi temple complex, too, which was targeted by terrorists in July 2013.
"Other investigating agencies are interrogating the terror suspects, especially to find out if they were planning some other incidents, too," said Senior Superintendent of Police, Garima Mallick, Gaya, and added that the district police was on alert. Police sources said the computer they were using at the cyber cafe and some other documents were also seized for investigation purposes.
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