Images of Chabad House, a 26/11 attack site, recovered from terror suspects held in Pune: ATS

The Maharashtra ATS has recovered images of Chabad House, one of the 26/11 terror attacks sites, in south Mumbai from the electronic devices of the two terror suspects arrested earlier this month in Pune, a senior official said on Sunday.

The agency also recovered an electronic circuit used in making explosives from the rented flat of the terror suspects in Pune's Kondhwa area along with 500 GB data from the devices, he said.

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The two suspects - Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan (23) and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki (24) - wanted by the National Investigation Agency for their alleged involvement in a terror-related case in Rajasthan, were nabbed from Kothrud area in Pune on July 18. The state Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) later took over the probe into the case from the Pune police.

"We have found some images of Chabad House in Mumbai from the electronic devices of the two terror suspects. Besides that, the screenshots of Google map locations from various districts have also been recovered," the senior ATS official said in response to a query by reporters.

Chabad institutions, part of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, are community centres that mainly cater to Israelis and Jews across the world. Nariman House (renamed Chabad House), was under siege during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. During the 26/11 attacks, Pakistani terrorists killed rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg besides four visitors at the Chabad House. Two-year-old son of the rabbi, baby Moshe, survived after being rescued by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel.

The ATS official further said, "We have found a drone camera from the house of the two terror suspects, and also recovered an electronic circuit which is used in making an explosive." "What exactly they were planning to do is not clear yet. We have recovered nearly 500 GB data from their devices. This data has been sent to the forensic department," he said. The terror suspects used the drone for shooting (videos/images), but it is not yet clear which location they captured using it, he said.

"Which locations they shot using the drone will be clear only after the forensic report. We have not received the drone footage as it has been sent for forensic analysis," the official added. The police earlier said that they had recovered a tent from the duo. When asked about it, the ATS official said, "The two suspects avoided living in hotels whenever they went to conduct recce as they used the tent. They had visited many places in the state."

"The accused are hardcore terrorists...They were influenced by watching the videos of some individuals and reading books...They have been trying to evade many questions (during their questioning)," he added.

The accused accompanying them, who managed to run away at the time of their arrest, is also a hardcore terrorist, he said. Multiple teams have been deployed to nab him, he added. Days after the arrest of the two suspects, the ATS on Wednesday arrested a man named Abdul Qadir Dastgir Pathan in Pune for providing shelter to the duo. It has also arrested a man from Ratnagiri district for providing financial aid to them.

All of them have been remanded in the ATS custody till August 5. The two arrested terror suspects (Khan and Saki) hail from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh and are graphic designers. Both carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh each, police said. They fled Ratlam after learning that their names had cropped up in an investigation into a terror case in which some suspected members of the Al-Sufa outfit were apprehended by the Rajasthan police from the MP town, they said.

They reached Mumbai, where they stayed in the Bhendi Bazaar area for two to three days and then came to Pune’s Kondhwa area. The duo took up jobs with the help of a local resident, sources said earlier.

They befriended a third person, a resident of Jharkhand, who managed to escape when the police nabbed the duo, they said. In Kondhwa, the two happened to meet Qadir and told him that they had come to Pune in search of jobs as their financial condition was weak, the sources added.

Qadir, who himself was involved in graphic designing work, provided them jobs and sublet the place he had taken on rent, they said.