New Delhi:
Zia ur Rehman alias Waqas, the 24-year-old alleged Pakistani terrorist, has confessed to undergoing intense training in Pakistan before he came to India to join Indian Mujahideen, sources in the Delhi Police have said.
Sources claim that Waqas has also confessed to his role in the Varanasi blast in 2010, Mumbai blasts in 2011, twin blasts in Hyderabad last year and the Jama Masjid shootout in Delhi in 2010.
Early daysIn 2010, Waqas allegedly underwent religious and weapons training in Pakistan for a year and was always motivated to carry out jihadi attacks.
Waqas' first trainer was a man named Taj Mohammed. Initially Taj would send him back, but due to his persistence, he finally agreed to train Waqas at Naushera in Pakistan, along with a group of boys aged between 15-20 years.
The overall head trainer at Naushera was Abu Manzoor. Waqas told investigators that their training would begin at 5 in the morning and continue till 5 in the evening. It would start with morning prayers and religious teachings at the mosque. In the course of the day, the weapons training would follow. Waqas was trained on how to use a G2 gun, AK-47 and INSAS rifles.
After the first round of training or Daura-e-aam at Pakistan, he was then sent to Waziristan, where he was trained along with 20 other boys.
Specially trained to make explosivesAfter a month of gun training, he was sent for a special training on making explosives. Waqas has allegedly said that his trainers taught him to make Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with locally available ingredients like ammonium nitrate, hydrogen peroxide and potassium chloride. In another 10 days he learnt how to make six different types of battery circuits.
Finally, by September 2010, he came to India where he was received by Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu, who took him to meet Yasin Bhatkal, the former India chief of Indian Mujahideen.
Role in recent terror attacks Waqas has also confessed to taking part in Varanasi, Zaveri Bazaar, Dilsukhnagar blasts and Jama Masjid shoot out, say sources.
In the case of Zaveri Bazaar blasts in Mumbai in 2011, Waqas has told cops that he along with Yasin bhatkal, Tehseen and Asadullah Akhtar had been camping in Mumbai since March that year. They had rented rooms at a hotel in Byculla, and Waqas got a job at a mobile repairing shop nearby.
Apparently during his time there, he also tried to figure out a way to use a cell phone as a triggering device.
Finally they got explosives from Mangalore and Rs 1 lakh in hawala to buy the material and scooters on which the bombs were planted.
In fact, Waqas had planted the bombs at Zaveri Bazaar himself. His image was captured on the CCTV, and Yasin Bhatkal had identified him in the footage to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigators.
Last year, after Yasin was arrested by NIA, Waqas fled from his Mangalore hideout as Yasin knew that address. He stayed in Munnar, Kerala till January this year.
He was arrested on Saturday from the Ajmer railway station in Rajasthan after a tip-off.