Bomb mastermind behind murders

 

The Afghan-trained bomb maker, who is in his early 50’s, has managed to stay underground for over two decades, despite carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head and the entire intelligence machinery — both Central and state — combing through their ‘contacts’ across the country.

 

The search for Siddique, who has a doctorate in English literature, has been intensified over the last couple of years as the killings of the Hindu leaders got embarrassingly frequent. More recently, Fakruddin’s version that the Jihadis got their indoctrination, murder hardware and the identity of targets from Siddique has disturbed the sleuths.

“Siddique gave them the targets’ names, mobile numbers, photographs, addresses and paper clippings to the elimination squad that was assembled for each operation. 

He also held motivation sessions that ended with the pledge that there would be no hesitation and no compromising on resolve for eliminating the target in the name of Jihad”, said an informed source.

 

‘Police’ Fakruddin, 36, Panna Ismail, 39, and Bilal Malik, 26, were arrested in October last year in a joint operation by the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh police from Chennai and Puttur in AP. 

In that pre-dawn raid, the cops missed Siddique, who had been staying with the trio. They only found the bombs he had made, another source said.

 

The Siddique squad is said to be responsible not just for the recent killings but also for the bomb blast outside BJP’s Chennai office in April last year and the pipe bomb planted on L K Advani’s route near Madurai in 2011.