Gujarat hope to get terror suspect in London

Gandhinagar, March 19 (IANS) A Gujarat police team will fly to London for Hanif Umarji Patel alias Tiger Hanif's extradition hearing March 25 hoping to get custody of the 1993 Surat bombings alleged mastermind.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Subhash Trivedi and inspectors J.M. Patel and R.H. Hadea will leave for London soon.

"He is wanted in the Surat blast case and there is no other case registered against him," a police officer said.

Tiger Hanif is the key accused in the Jan 28 twin blasts that killed an eight-year-old schoolgirl and wounded 12 in Surat.

The London Police is ready to hand him over to Indian authorities, Hadea said.

"The needful procedures are being followed," he said. According to police sources, four other people are also wanted in connection with the case and efforts are on to locate them.

On the wanted list for over 17 years, 49-year-old Tiger Hanif was traced to a grocery store in Bolton by Scotland Yard and arrested from a house in Astley Street in Halliwell Feb 16.

Tiger Hanif has been remanded in custody and will appear at a City of Westminister Magistrate Court March 25 where an Indian government application for his extradition will come up for hearing.

A former Gujarat minister and 12 others were convicted in the case.

Hanif and his accomplices are accused of plotting the Surat attack to avenge the 1992 razing of the Babri mosque by a Hindu mob in Ayodhya town in Uttar Pradesh.

While the other accused were caught within days of the blasts, Hanif escaped abroad, police said.