1993 serial blasts accused nabbed by Gujarat ATS in drug case

Ahmedabad: A prime accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, who is a close associate of the terror attack's key conspirator Tiger Memon, was arrested from the airport in Maharashtra's capital by the Gujarat ATS in a drug seizure case, a senior official said on Monday.

Munaf Halari was arrested from the Mumbai international airport on late Sunday night by a team of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), he said.

The 55-year-old, travelling on a Pakistani passport, had arrived from Nairobi and was supposed to catch a Dubai- bound flight from Mumbai, said Assistant Commissioner of Police (ATS) K K Patel.

Halari is wanted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts in which around 260 people were killed and more than 700 injured in what was one of the worst terror attacks in India.

Halari was on the radar of the Gujarat ATS following the arrest of five Pakistani nationals in January off the Gujarat coast with drugs worth Rs 175 crore, he said.

The questioning of the Pakistani nationals had revealed the role of Halari in drug smuggling, the ACP told reporters at Gujarat ATS headquarters

here.