Two held for plotting attack on Mumbai oil tanks

Mumbai ATS chief K.P. Raghuvanshi.

Mumbai, March 14 (IANS) The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) claimed to have foiled a major terror plot to blow up state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) terminals in south Mumbai and a mall by arresting two people here Sunday. They were sent to police custody till March 18 by a city court.

ATS chief K.P. Raghuvanshi told reporters that the arrested duo, identified as Latif and Riyaz, were from Mumbai.

They were nabbed after a tip-off that they were allegedly plotting to blow  up oil tanks of the ONGC and a mall in Mumbai, among other sites,Raghuvanshi said.

They were produced before a Mumbai court that granted them police custody till March 18.

Raghuvanshi said the duo had conducted a recce of the sensitive Nhava-Sheva area of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and also its surroundings.

Police have also recovered several maps of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and the sites they were planning to strike from them. They are suspected to have links with international terror outfits.

As per initial investigations, Raghuvanshi said they were trained in Pakistan and were in touch with some Pakistani terror outfits. However, he declined to identify the terror outfits.

The JNPT is among the most sensitive installations in the city and barely a few kilometres away from downtown Colaba, which was the landing point of the 10 Pakistani terrorists who had attacked Mumbai Nov 26, 2008.

The ATS, which is carrying out further investigations into the matter, would also probe the duo's links to the 26/11 attacks and the Feb 13 Pune blast, their other associates in Mumbai and elsewhere in the country, he added.

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Mumbai, Mar 14 (PTI) Two terror suspects allegedly operating here for a terror outfit in Pakistan have been arrested for conducting recce of an ONGC installation and two markets for attacking them, a senior official from Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) said today.

Acting on a tip off by Central Security Agencies, Abdul Latif alias Guddu (29) and Riyaz Ali (23) were arrested from near Matunga railway station in central Mumbai last night, ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi told reporters.

"We have established that their targets were ONGC, Thakkar Mall and Malgaldas Market. They wanted to execute their terror plans soon. Their plan included setting them on fire," he said.

Thakkar Mall is located in suburban Borivali while Mangaldas Market is situated south Mumbai.

Police did not specify the ONGC installation. However they suspect that it could be the ONGC office building in Bandra.