Blast Convict Maqbool Had Spent Rs 2,000 to Develop Pressure Cooker Bombs
HYDERABAD: Dilsukhnagar twin blasts convict Syed Maqbool alias Zubair alias Shanawaz, 44,, an activist of Indian Mujahideen (IM), who died after a prolonged illness in Cherlapally central prison on July 25, had assembled a pressure cooker bomb for Rs 2000, reliable police sources said.
The 2013 blasts at Dilsukhnagar RTC bus stand had claimed 18 lives and injured over 130 persons. He was given life imprisonment by a special court in Delhi.
A native of Nanded, Maqbool had reportedly triggered the bombs with a remote sensor and transmitter/receiver that he had prepared after being trained by Pakistani terrorists.
He was arrested by the NIA. During interrogation, he confessed that he was involved in a series of high-profile cases, including the Dilsukhnagar blasts.
NIA investigation revealed that he maintained close ties with top Pakistan-based IM activists like Ubaid-ur- Rehman, Imran Khan and Riaz Bhatkal, who, at the time of the twin blasts, were reportedly in India.
As per his confession, Maqbool and his IM accomplices had conducted a recce of major dams and irrigation projects in order to cause maximum damage. IM activists identified targets with an extensive reconnaissance of important sitemaps and blueprints, reliable sources said.
IM's terror conspiracies include the Varanasi blasts in 2006; blasts in Mumbai (2006), UP courts-Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow (2007), Jaipur, Delhi and Ahmedabad serial blasts (all in 2008), Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore (2010), and Hyderabad twin blasts in 2013.
Maqbool was shifted to Cherlapally prison in November 2023.
