Bombs that killed 188 on 7/11 were made in Sewri home

Ketan Ranga finds the terror room in Sewri building used by five men to kill 188 Mumbaikars on July 11, 2006

Ketan Ranga finds the terror room in Sewri building used by five men to kill 188 Mumbaikars on July 11, 2006

MiD DAY has tracked down the room where five men hatched the plan to blow up suburban train compartments

SCENE OF CRIME: Room number 209u00a0 on the second floor of Al Raza buildingu00a0 in Sewri was provided to one of the planters, where the accused hatched the plan to blow up suburban train compartments on July 11, 2006. u00a0u00a0PICS/SAYED SAMEER ABEDI

on July 11, 2006 that killed 187 people. Room number 209 on the second floor of Al Raza building in Sewri was provided to one of the planters, Abu Rashid, by his uncle who lives in room no 509 of the same building.

Rashid had come to Sewri from his village Sanjerpur in UP's Azamgarh district a few months before the blasts. A month before the blasts in June, his friends Dr Shahnawaz, Atif Ameen, Mohammed Sajid and Mohammad Sadiq joined him in the flat that has one room and a kitchen.

Family explains

Rashid's uncle Obaid Sheikh, who runs a general store nearby, told MiD DAY, "The boys came to stay here in June end. A few days after the blasts, Rashid told us that they were here for studies."

He added, "The police had come here enquiring about Rashid. We helped the boys, as they were from our village. We have no idea about their role in any of the crimes."

While Atif and Sajid were killed in the Batla House encounter in Delhi on September 19 last year, Sadiq is in police custody and Rashid and Shahnawaz are absconding. According to Sadiq's confession, the bombs were assembled in the Sewri house.

ATS disagrees

While the Anti-Terrorism Squadu00a0 (ATS) has denied that Sadiq and the others were behind the train bombings, police from other states and the Mumbai Crime Branch believe that these five men, who are part of the Indian Mujahideen, are responsible for the 7/11 blasts. In the ATS's lie detector test on Sadiq, he denied having a role in the blasts.

But if the ATS's theory is true, why did the five men come to Mumbai and stay in this building and leave on July 13, two days after the after the blasts? Also, the ATS cannot deny their involvement, as their names have come up during investigations of the Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts last year.