Man who funded Mumbai train blasts held in UK

New Delhi: Raheel Sheikh, the man suspected to have funded the Mumbai train bombings of 2006, has been detained at the London airport by the Interpol.

Sheikh is one of the three suspects who allegedly provided funds for carrying out the seven blasts that killed 185 people and left over 400 injured.

The UK police have asked the CBI to submit details on the case. Sheikh is also wanted in the Aurangabad arms haul case.

He allegedly has links to the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islam

Sheikh's father was allegedly a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.

The evidence against Raheel is expected to be presented before a court in Mumbai after which a decision on his extradition can be taken, he said.

"We have received the information from the Interpol office in India which is in CBI, Delhi," Gafoor said.

However, the CBI and External Affairs Ministry remained tightlipped on the issue and refused to give any comments on Sheikh's detention.

Raheel, along with Zulfikar Fayyaz Qazi and Zabiuddin Ansari, is suspected to be a key conspirator behind the serial blasts in the metropolis and had set up escape plans weeks before the bombings.

A resident of Mumbai's Grant Road area, Raheel handled communication between these cells and LeT's Pakistan-based commander for operations targeting India.

Another key figure is Azam Cheema the man who authorised and oversaw the serial bombings and was also responsible for funnelling Lashkar recruits, raised mainly from the ranks of the Students Islamic Movement of India, to training camps in Pakistan.

Gujarat police identified 30-year-old Raheel, along with Qazi, as the key conspirator of the attempted bombing of an Ahmedabad-Mumbai train on February 19 last year.

In March last year, Raheel's name surfaced again after the Delhi Police shot dead top LeT operative Mohammad Iqbal, a Pakistani national.

Shaikh, a suspected activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), had also allegedly helped two Pakistanis involved in the seven deadly blasts on suburban trains that day escape from India.

The powerful bombs, in which RDX was used, were placed in the first class men's compartments of suburban trains during the evening peak hours.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Mumbai Police, which probed the blasts, has so far charge-sheeted 28 accused in the case.