The recent blasts in Hyderabad were carried out by Bangladesh-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami at the instance of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, according to a confessional statement of one of the suspects who is now in police custody.
Abdul Majeed, the brother of the terror mastermind Abdul Shahid alias Bilal, was believed to have told the interrogators that the May 18 explosion at the historic Mecca Masjid and the August 25 blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat Bhandar were executed by operatives of HuJI at the instance of ISI.
A compact disc, purportedly containing the recorded statement of Majeed, was made available to some of the television channels in Hyderabad.
Bilal, a city-based HuJI activist, who is now believed to be hiding in Bangladesh, had hatched the plot with the help of his two brothers and associates from Bangladesh under the instructions from ISI, according to the statement. His brother was picked up by the city police after the twin blasts.
The conspiracy was hatched by Shahid and his friend Khaja, both residents of Moosarambagh here, police sources said quoting the confessional statement. The suspect also told the police that his brother used to "instigate" several youth to take to Jihad.
It is suspected that the entire operation was financed by Bilal's elder brother Abdul Samad based in Saudi Arabia.
The blast at Mecca Masjid had claimed nine lives while 44 people died in the twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat.
The police also suspect that Bilal was the mastermind behind the suicide attack on the police commissioner's task force office in Hyderabad in October 2005 in which one policeman was killed.
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