The Lucknow link to 7/11

DOES LUCKNOW have anything to do with 7/11? Of course not, but then it’s getting linked to the serial blasts through one of the suspects. The Gaya police picked up Javed Akram on Thursday and came to know of the role Lucknow played in grooming the suspect.

After completing high school from the Barachatti High School, Akram arrived in Lucknow. There, he studied at the Tahzibul Furquan Madarsa, Dariyai Tola in Chowk to become a maulvi.  Later, to master Arabic, he joined the Alia Irfania Educational Institute.

The police officials and the Intelligence sleuths, interrogating Akram in the Rampur police station here, said that he had studied at the Tahzibul Furquan Madarsa from 1992-93 and at the Alia Irfania Institute from 1994-95.

Sources said during his stay in Lucknow, Akram came in contact with some extremist groups and he made several trips to Azamgarh. He had also visited Ayodhya after the Babri Masjid demolition and attended meetings organised by local Muslim organisations.         

From Lucknow, Akram moved to Mysore. There he took up the job of a teacher at the Anwarul- Uloom Madarsa in Shanti Nagar.

On information provided by the Anti-Terrorist Squad, Maharashtra, and the Intelligence Bureau, the Gaya police raided Dangra, Akram’s native village, on Thursday.

The villagers told the police that Akram had arrived in Dangra two days after 7/11. However, six unidentified persons, who had visited him and held prolong discussions, had escaped before the police raided the place.

The police recovered an album and two cell phones from Akram. A photograph in the album matched with the sketch of a blast suspect. The mobile had numbers of several Mumbai-based persons and Akram was in regular contact with them. “We are tracing those who Akram spoke to before the blasts,” said a police officer.

Gaya SP Amit Kumar Jain said they were passing on all information to their Mumbai counterpart.   

Meanwhile, cops said some of Akram’s family members were staying at the Millat Colony, Belawat in Hazaribagh. Incidentally, two Pakistani terrorists involved in the attack on the Amercian Centre in Kolkata had been killed in a police raid in the same colony some time back.