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Godhra mayhem accused arrested

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday nabbed the main accused in the Godhra killings from Bhadohi town near Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Identified as Anwar Rashid, the man hails from Bhadohi, better known as India's biggest carpet manufacturing and export belt.

Bhadohi Superintendent of Police B D Tripathi told rediff.com, "After being tipped by another suspect, who was arrested in Hyderabad recently, we had got down to the task of tracking down Anwar until we succeeded in laying our hands on him today."

He said, "We have sufficient evidence to nail Anwar for his direct involvement in setting ablaze two passenger coaches of Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station."

A top office-bearer of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, Rashid had confessed that he had issued directives regarding the carnage to his contacts in Godhra on phone from Bhadohi, the SP said.

He had made the calls to another accused in the case Hasib Raza, who was arrested in Patna.

Rashid made phone calls to Raza, his sister and an uncle Masiullah who lived in Surat, Singh said, adding he also confessed that he had issued directives to his contacts there over phone from Bhadohi on the plan to carry out the carnage.

Tripathi said that Rashid was among the five SIMI activists recently released on bail. Rashid's brother was earlier arrested in Surat, he said.

DIG (Mirzapur) Guru Darshan Singh said that Rashid's role in the Godhra carnage was established on the basis of the phone calls he made a day before the attack on Sabarmati Express carrying karsevaks from Ayodhya.

The DIG said that Rashid was SIMI district president. Cases under relevant sections had been registered against him, he said.

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