Is techie Tauqeer India's Osama bin Laden?

New Delhi: Abdul Subhan Querishi alias Tauqeer is now being described as the Indian equivalent of Osama bin Laden.

Police say he is the techie brain of a terror group which is now emerging as the key link to the multiple bombings in Delhi.

Sources said Tauqeer and four of his associates had stayed with a man named Imran in Ahmedabad a few months before the blasts, where the plans of targeting Delhi were discussed first.

Sources also said Tauqeer shifted to another location after a few days and told Imran he was in the process giving a final shape to the Delhi plan.

A team of Delhi Police sleuths are closely questioning Imran, who was arrested soon after the Ahmedabad explosions.

Though the Ahmedabad crime branch released pictures of four suspects — Alamzeb Afridi, Mujeeb Jamilbhai Shiekh, Abdul Razzak and Qayamuddin — and said they were wanted for the July 26 serial blasts, they indicated their possible link to the Delhi explosions as well.

DCP Crime Abhay Chudasama said, "The pattern of blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts are the same. People behind the blasts could be of the same group. We are passing information to the Delhi Police."

While the police refused to disclose anything, there were enough indications of a connection between Saturday's bombings with the explosions in at least four other states over the past few months.

Sources confirmed to private channels crack investigators were conducting extensive searches in Azamgarh and surrounding areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

The teams have also accessed interrogation reports of the suspects who have been arrested in previous blasts, with a central coordinating team in Delhi piecing together all the information.

Despite these specific leads, the Delhi Police, which had claimed "strong leads" on Sunday, downgraded its statement on Monday.

Delhi Police Commissioner, Yudhvir Singh Dadwal said on Monday, "The probe is on. We will not discuss anything."

Sources, however, said the investigations have so far indicated:

• The bombers used public transport to reach each of the five blast sites
• Local sleeper cells may not have been used in the Delhi operation
• An eastern Uttar Pradesh module was given the task of planting the bombs
• The eastern UP module had possible help from suspects based in adjoining districts like Faridabad and western UP
• At least one suspect picked up so far could be significant to the case

Despite the stoic silence maintained by the investigators, sources confirmed a certain degree of consolidation of information had been achieved on Monday.

With over a dozen suspects having been picked up from Delhi and its adjoining areas, about 24 teams of the special anti-terror special cell were now carrying out searches, sifting through mobile phone records and compiling patterns based on interrogation reports of blast accused arrested in at least four states.