New Delhi: Central security agencies claimed that Karachi-based commander of banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI), Abdul Sahil Mohammed, was the mastermind behind the Hyderabad blasts that claimed nearly 42 lives. Throughout July and early August, Mohammad left dozens of Internet-chat messages for his Hyderabad operative, asking them to go ahead with the plans he had earlier authorised. Neither the targets nor the identities of these operatives, however, could be established but yesterday s Hyderabad blasts were said to be a part of his plans only, official sources said.

Mohammad had been recruited to the outfit after the 2003 communal riots in Gujarat by his relative and mentor, Mafioso Rasool Khan. After executing the October, 2005 attack on the Hyderabad police's Special Task Force headquarters, he fled to Karachi. Efforts to infiltrate his Bangladesh network also collapsed after a police informer, Abdul Sattar, switched sides and joined the terrorists he been spying on. Repeated requests by the cops for the detention of several dozen suspected HUJI sympathisers were also shot down by state government authorities due to the fear that such an action would fuel communal tension.