2002-03 Mumbai triple blasts: The encounter that helped crack the case

In March 2003 the Crime Branch officials received a tipoff through their informant about three Pakistani terrorists who were supplying explosives to their Padghabased module headed by Saquib Nachan They were told the terrorists were about to arrive near Goregaonrsquos Hub mall The Pakistanis were identified as Abu Sultan Abu Anwar Ali and Mohammed Iqbal Wani The informant said the group had approached them to show a way to Padgha since they were new to the cityOne of the three Pakistani terrorists killed in the encounter at Goregaon had helped assemble the bomb that exploded at Mumbai Central stationRecollecting the encounter the then inspector Pradeep Sharma had said ldquoWe had recovered two AK 56 and several hand grenades from them One of the accused who was killed in the encounter was a bomb expert He was instrumental in making the bombs that exploded at all the three spotsrdquoVoicesPraful Bhosale Investigating officer in the caseThey wanted to destabilise the whole economy and were planning something big But as we gradually got clues we managed to break the whole racketGulzar Azmi General secretary Jamiat UlamaeMaharashtraWe would approach the High Court to challenge the order of the Sessions court The three who have been acquitted had to face the terror tag for so long as the court took a long time to pass a judgmentHow the encounter unfoldedgtgt After receiving the info the squad of encounter specialists headed by Pradeep Sharma and Daya Nayak laid a trapgtgt They saw a car arriving at the spot The informer alerted them and confirmed that the terrorists are in the cargtgt The team decided to wait and watch since the group was heavily armed with weapons such AK47 and hand grenadesgtgt Soon one of the terrorists in the car came out to meet the informantgtgt The accused saw the cops and realized something was amiss But by then the cops had surrounded the cargtgt The cops asked them to surrender but they opened fire at the squad injuring two policemengtgt The Crime Branch team retaliated and gunned down all three terrorists Police recovered several sophisticated firearms and ammunition from themgtgt The most crucial item the cops recovered was a diary in which the terrorists had maintained the accounts of arms and ammunition supplied to Nachan in Padgha It had the names of people who were part of this groupThe arrestsgtgt April 10 2003 The High Court asked Saquib Nachan to surrender himself and face the investigations Nachan had approached the court after his name cropped up in the investigations He surrendered to the Mumbai police on the same day of the ordergtgt April 15 2003 Following Nachanrsquos interrogations the cops picked up his associate Atif Nasir Mullagtgt April 17 2003 Hasib Zuber Mulla was arrested in the case on a transfer warrantgtgt April 21 2003 Another accused Gulam Akbar Khotal was arrested in the casegtgt May 1 2003 Farhan Mallik Khot and Mohd Kamil Jamal Shaikh were picked up by the Crime Branchgtgt May 8 2003 Noor Mohammad Ansari alias Sikander was picked up along with Dr Wahid Jabbar Ansarigtgt May 11 2003 The Crime Branch arrested Anwar Ali Javed Ali Khangtgt May 14 2003 Accused Areef Hussain Shaikh was arrested but was discharged from the case due to lack of evidence Another accused Mohmmad Nadeem Paloba and planter Muzammil Akhtar Abdul Ansari were picked upgtgt May 22 2003 Two more accused Haroon Mohammad Lohar and Rashid Ahmad arrestedgtgt June 6 2003 Cops made the last arrest Sadiq Khopoli in the case