The arrest this week of two alleged Indian Mujahideen men for the Pune German Bakery blast of February 13, 2010, could have a bearing on investigations into the April 17, 2010 Bangalore Chinnaswamy cricket stadium blasts, according to sources.
A top police team from Bangalore is expected to be in Mumbai over the next week to question Shaikh Lalbaba Md Hussain alias Bilal, 27, and Mirza Himayat Baig, 29, the alleged Indian Mujahideen men arrested on September 8 by the Maharashtra ATS for the Pune German Bakery case.
While police sources said that there was still no clear evidence linking Bilal and Baig to the Bangalore cricket stadium blasts, they acknowledged the fact that there was circumstantial evidence to raise suspicion of links.
Bilal, who is yet to be booked in the Pune case, is specifically of interest to the Bangalore Police due to his presence in the city around the time of the stadium blasts, as revealed by telephone records obtained by the police. Bilal and a group of friends lived in apartments in the upmarket localities of Benson Town and Frazer Town, in the vicinity of the stadium, investigations at the Maharashtra end have already revealed.
A series of five bombs were found planted around a packed cricket stadium in Bangalore during the course of a final round robin game in the Indian Premier League between the Bangalore Royal Challengers and the Mumbai Indians on April 17. While two bombs exploded ahead of the start of the evening game, injuring one person, three other bombs were defused by the bomb squad.
The defused bombs were found equipped with a timer clock with the brand name Samay?known to be favoured by the Indian Mujahideen outfit through the course of blasts carried out by it in Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and New Delhi between 2007 and 2008.