Attackers sent train blast pics to ISIS men, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Bhopal: Minutes after carrying out the blast in Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train on Tuesday morning, the three “terrorists” uploaded the pictures of the explosion site to their ISIS handlers in Syria through social media, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan disclosed here on Wednesday.

The three suspected militants were arrested at Pipariya in Hosangabad district by the police when they were trying to flee to Lucknow after the incident following a diktat by their handlers in Syria, Mr Chouhan told reporters here.

“The three terrorists also took pictures of the timer pipe bomb they had planted in one of the coaches in Bhopal- Ujjain passenger train at Bhopal railway station by their cell phone camera and sent the photographs to their handlers in Syria through Internet. There are enough evidence to establish their connection with ISIS,” he added.

The three “militants”, identified as Atif Mujjafar alias Al Qasim, Danish Akhtar alias Zafar and Syed Mir Hussain alias Hamza, reached Bhopal at around 7.30 in the morning of Tuesday from Lucknow by Puspak Express and planted the bomb in the penultimate coach of the train.

The blast in the train occurred near Jabdi railway station under Shajapur district at around 9.50 am in the morning on the day, leading to injuries to a dozen passengers.

Meanwhile, Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of MP on Wednesday produced all the three train blast accused in a local court.

The three suspected militants declined the court’s offer to arrange lawyers for them saying that they would hire their own advocates. The Ujjain GRP filed a FIR in connection with the incident.

In a related development, inspector general of police (IGP), (law and order) of MP Makrand Devskar told reporters here that the Central intelligence had issued an alert to the state on a possible terror strike in a train three months back. But, there were no specific inputs on the train blast.

Meanwhile, ATS sources disclosed that the mastermind of the Tuesday’s train blast, Atif, an engineering student of Aligarh and the self-proclaimed “emir” (chief) of the Kharasan module -an offshoot of ISIS based in Afghan- Pakistan border- had planted the bomb in the train at Bhopal.

Atif had tipped off on other terrorists based in Uttar Pradesh to MP ATS leading to killing of Saiful in an encounter with police in Lucknow late on Tuesday night.