
Kidnap attempt of newborn at Karnataka's Raichur government hospital foiled by alert attendants
Also Read - Bengaluru jail psychiatrist helped LeT terror convict with phones, security info: Report
According to police, a group of individuals, some dressed in sarees to avoid suspicion, entered the hospital and made their way to the fourth floor, where the maternity ward is located. With most attendants asleep during the early morning hours, the group reportedly tried to exploit the lack of vigilance.
One of the intruders, allegedly disguised as a woman, tried to carry away a newborn baby. However, nearby caretakers became suspicious and quickly confronted the suspect. A brief altercation followed, after which the suspect was apprehended and handed over to the police. Two other individuals believed to be part of the gang managed to escape, police officials confirmed.
Eyewitnesses at the hospital raised concerns over lax security arrangements, noting that home guards were not present at the time of the incident. Their absence may have made it easier for the culprits to access the ward unnoticed.
The captured suspect was later turned over to the Market Police Station. Authorities are now searching for the two others who fled the scene and have intensified surveillance and security protocols at the hospital.
Also Read - Bengaluru unfazed as nationwide labour strike sparks protests across Karnataka: Report
This alarming episode in Raichur comes close on the heels of a similar incident in Kalaburagi last year, where two women allegedly posing as nurses abducted a newborn from the district hospital just hours after birth earlier this week.
Both cases have sparked concerns over hospital security measures, particularly in government-run healthcare facilities, where staff shortages and low surveillance are often reported. Police are continuing their investigation into the Raichur case and reviewing CCTV footage to identify and trace the absconding suspects.
(With agency inputs)

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Mint
12 hours ago
- Mint
'No objection': Pakistan's Ishaq Dar shifts stance on US designating TRF as terror group post meet with US' Marco Rubio
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar seemed to shift his stance on the United States (US) move to designate The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Dar said at an event in Washington, DC on Friday that Pakistan has "no issue" with the US designation; however, he reiterated that linking TRF with Lashkar-e-Taiba is "wrong." The Resistance Front – which India and the US believe is an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. The Pakistan minister said it is "obviously a sovereign decision" of the US to designate the TRF. "We have no issue. And we welcome, if they have any evidence, that they are involved," he said. 'Linking the TRF to the Lashkar-e-Taiba is wrong. That outfit was dismantled years ago by Pakistan. The actors were prosecuted, arrested and jailed, and the entire outfit was destroyed,' said Dar. "So, if it [TRF] is an independent US authorities have any evidence that they were involved [in Pahalgam attack], we have no objection to that," Dar said. "I can guarantee you that it is this TRF has nothing to do with the LeT, which has become defunct years ago," he added. This statement was seen as a significant shift from his previous position. Earlier, Dar told Pakistan's Parliament that Islamabad had blocked mention of the TRF in a UN Security Council Resolution which condemned the Pahalgam attacks. 'We opposed the mention of TRF in the UNSC statement. I got calls from global capitals, but Pakistan will not accept. TRF was deleted, and Pakistan prevailed," said Dar was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying in April. He reported added, "We don't consider the TRF illegal. Show us proof they carried out the Pahalgam attack. Show ownership by the TRF. We won't accept the allegation, and TRF had to be deleted from the UN press release." Ishaq Dar meets Marco Rubio Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar at the Department of State in Washington, DC. 'Met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 today to discuss expanding bilateral trade and enhancing collaboration in the critical minerals sector. I also thanked him for Pakistan's partnership in countering terrorism and preserving regional stability,' Marco Rubion Ishaq Dar said on Friday the United States and Pakistan were "very close" to a trade deal that could come within days, but comments from the US after Dar met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned no timeline.


India Today
3 days ago
- India Today
How the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case was cracked
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated October 16, 2006)They could have been just another group of young men travelling from the dust bowls of Bihar, seeking respite from the darkness of poverty and pursuing a dream of prosperity. The dark night of June 25 provided the perfect setting, camouflaging the motive of two men from across the border who boarded the train from Patna. A tall, hefty Kamal Ahmed Ansari escorted the two inconspicuous passengers into a seemingly unknown territory. The men didn't exchange words for two days in the Mumbai-bound train and melted into the populated suburbs as soon as they and his wards, though, were only a part of the big team. By the time they reached Mumbai, the entire team of 11 Pakistanis-who had sneaked through the porous border- was in place. So was the Indian contingent. Seven two-member teams with one Indian and a Pakistani were formed for the operation Terror, you could say, had arrived in Mumbai. It had taken the group three months-from one fateful rainy night in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, in March 2006-to plan and execute an attack that shook the commercial capital and shocked the country yet to Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) India commander Azam Cheema's palatial house in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, where he was playing host. It was the congregation of the faithful, the new converts and pilgrims to the world of terror. Like-minded or rather mindless jehadis from various parts of the world had assembled for their sermon. Sitting in a regal room were the Indian visitors who had reached his place via Bangladesh, Nepal and Iran. The air was thick with idealism. One cue from Cheema was enough to kickstart another round of bloody "freedom struggle". LeT training camps at Bahawalpur were now swarming with 50 men waiting to become jehadis. Situated right in the middle of a jungle, the camp is the school for terror, which trains men in identifying, handling, firing and dismantling weapons. A major chapter involves education in making, planting and finally testing explosives in special water trainees are also taught the use of modern communications tools-from Internet to satellite phones-to effectively and efficiently carry out their intent. That night, says the police, the blueprint of a plan designed by the ISI and executed by the LeT was drawn. The joint force was all set to orchestrate one of the biggest carnages that Mumbai was to witness in days to come-the serial bomb blasts that killed 187 COUNTDOWN BEGINSBy July 8, the Pakistanis had already settled in the new environment in middle and lower class Muslim localities in the suburbs and Mumbra. The RDX was on its way to Mumbai. Smuggled through the Kandla port in Gujarat, it was transported by road to Mumbai. Ehsan Ullah, the dark and well-built man accompanying the most deadly contraband from Kandla port, had procured 20 kg of RDX, roughly the amount that caused the maximum casualty at Century Bazaar in 1993. Since the beginning of the year, the Maharashtra Police had seized over 400 kg of RDX, but this was one shipment that slipped the dragnet. What is worse, the police fear some other consignments too may have reached their destination and may be with sleeper the 1993 blasts, this time RDX was not the only substance used to shake up Mumbai. Dr Tanvir Ansari, a unani medicine practitioner at the Saboo Siddique hospital at Byculla, procured 20 kg of ammonium nitrate, which when mixed with RDX, increased the explosive force by a factor of three. Ammonium nitrate was procured from the quarries in Thane where the chemical is available for the well-connected. Money was no problem. Hawala payments from Saudi Arab via a techie, Rizwan Ahmed Davre, were sent to Faizal Sheikh, who is suspected to be the LeT chief of Mumbai. The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), which recovered 26,000 riyals (Rs 3,16,956) from Sheikh's house, estimates that over Rs 60 lakh had been sent to Faisal via hawala in two the morning of July 9, somewhere in Orissa, India was preparing to test its longest surface-to-surface nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni III which could cover 3,000 km to strike as far as China. But the real enemy was under her nose, on her soil, all set to target the softest core, Mumbai. In a dingy one-room flat owned by Mohammed Ali (an alleged LeT operative), at Shivajinagar in Govandi, locally made Kanchan pressure cookers were filled with 2 kg of RDX and 3.5 kg of ammonium nitrate to create a lethal concoction. Once ready, the 'bombs' were transported to Sheikh's one-room tenement in upmarket Perry Cross lane in in Mumbai, it was a usual Tuesday evening on July 11. The pressure cookers were wrapped in newspapers and carried in black rexine bags. The bombers left Bandra by 4 p.m. and reached Churchgate by 5.15 p.m. Taxis from respective hideouts were abandoned at Churchgate as the groups headed for the subway. The groups emerged separately on the fast train platform numbers 3 and 4, slipping into the first-class compartment of the crowded six o'clock bags were strategically placed on luggage overheads under wet umbrellas used on rainy monsoon days. As the moment of insanity drew closer, the groups got off the respective trains at different stations. Seven bombs exploded between 6.24 p.m. to 6.35 p.m. on Matunga, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhyander and Borivli. Barring the one bomber killed at Khar, the operation was a AND CLUELESSLike most of Mumbai, the police too was shocked at the magnitude of the attack. The first clues emerged from the tests at the forensic laboratory at Kalina when the substance used in the blasts was identified as RDX mixed with ammonium nitrate. As the sleuths worked through the night, it was clear that this was no rogue attack but a well-planned terror onslaught. Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy said a few hours after the attack, "Blasts were planned with great precision and there was no spot evidence."It was also clear that piecing together the jigsaw would be tough. The biggest hurdle was the magnitude of the tragedy. Minutes after the blast ripped the first class compartments of the seven Western Railway trains, panic-struck passengers and rains played deterrent in collecting evidence. Strewn between the remains of the train's compartments and charred bodies were going to be pieces of evidence, key to the trail that would later lead to people and places across the border. But, in those initial hours, with rain playing a farewell shower to the dead, the situation for the investigators was what Roy describes best: "It was nearly a blinder for us."advertisementThe night that followed brought into action the otherwise ignored Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS). Twenty officers, 50 constables and five dogs worked round the clock to find clinching evidence on the spot. Well into the night, the teams, wearing gloves and carrying umbrellas, split across the different blast spots and scanned through mounds of wreckage for that shred of vital first big break came from the Jogeshwari blast site where the BDDS sleuths found pressure cooker handles. The squad also traced charred pieces of aluminum lids of the cookers. Investigations by local police stations in their respective areas revealed that Kanchan pressure cookers were purchased from two shops in Santa got the first leads, ATS chief Krish Pal Singh Raghuvanshi put together a team. The team of four IPS officers and over 40 policemen worked overtime to crack the case. The arithmetic was simple: seven teams for seven blasts, assisted by two technical support teams. Intelligence was sought from IB, RAW and the state police. Raghuvanshi set the pace for the probe team. "We were humbled by our chief who himself slept for less than four hours every day for the first month," says an ATS official. The police began by detaining around 400 Muslims from across Maharashtra on grounds of suspicion. However, not a single clue led the investigators to the real culprits. It seemed to be a PHONE CALLSOn July 18, ATS intercepted telephone calls of a certain Mumtaz Choudhary of Navi Mumbai to Kamal Ahmed Ansari in Basupatti in Bihar, near Nepal border. What intrigued the investigators was the number of calls that were exchanged between the duo, and the location of Ansari, very close to the infamous Nepal border. While Choudhary's records seemed clean, it was Ansari who, according to IB, had been trained in Pakistan. A separate team of ATS officials flew to Bihar to arrest Ansari, while Choudhary was arrested from his house in Navi Mumbai. So dramatic was Ansari's arrest that an Indian Air Force aircraft was drafted to bring him to Mumbai. The other arrest was of a shoe shop owner Khalid Aziz Sheikh at Madhubani in Bihar. Ansari and other LeT operatives allegedly used the shop premises as a meeting Mumbai, another team of ATS was designated to investigate the alleged LeT leader Raheel Sheikh's involvement in the blast. He was wanted in the October 2005 blasts in Delhi. Raheel, although cornered in Mumbai, managed to escape. But a Crime Branch team cracked the connection while interrogating Pune based ex-SIMI activist Feroz Deshmukh. He revealed that Raheel had taken a loan of Rs 15,000 in May 2006 and promised him that a certain Noman would return it to him. The trail led to Noman who confirmed that he was supposed to collect the same amount from Faisal Sheikh. While the police couldn't get Raheel it managed to nab Faisal Sheikh, alleged to be closely associated with Azam Cheema, on July 27 from it turned out, is alleged to be the western India commander for LeT and one of the key players in the conspiracy. The loan loop only confirmed ATS' allegation of Raheel's links. Faisal's brother Muzzammil, was also arrested. Similarly Ehtesham Siddiqui, Maharashtra general secretary of SIMI, was arrested from Navi Mumbai after another accused Tanvir Ansari revealed that he was asked to pick up explosive substance by Siddiqui. Interestingly, investigators discovered a series of calls from a phone booth to Faisal's phone. The calls were by 25-yearold bar girl Manisha Chavan, who had been in a relationship with Faisal for 18 months. Manisha, who knew Faisal as Sameer, helped the police to identify him and corroborate their a sense the core had been cracked, but the police were careful to collect substantive evidence. This came from the narco-analysis tests of Faisal, Kamal Ansari and Siddiqui at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Bangalore. Although the tests could not be used as evidence against the accused, they helped the police in putting together pieces on how the blasts were carried out. The tests also confirmed that an unclaimed body from the blasts lying at the Sion hospital was that of Salim, a terrorist from Lahore who had planted one of the to Roy, the entire investigation was carried out in small logistical steps. "It has been a beautiful piece of highly professional investigation by our team," he says. Indeed scientific tests such as narco-analysis, telephone analysis and the cotton swab method to determine the presence of RDX gave the police quite a few clues. Tanvir Ansari also revealed during narco-analysis that he had guests from across the border. "Kuch mehman Pakistan se aaye the," he LINKSThe case may have been cracked but the police are yet to get answers for some vital questions. Even though the circumstantial evidence of ISI involvement through proxies and terror groups is clear, they will need conclusive evidence to make the charge of Pakistani involvement stick. Unlike the earlier bomb blast case, there have been no confessional statements as yet. The question, how the RDX came in through the Kandla port, is not the police have claimed that Abu Osama, the Pakistani national killed in an encounter at Antop Hill a few days after the blasts, was also one of the accused in the 7/11 blast case. When nine of the Pakistani accused fled the country, it is rather curious why Osama would stay back for a good 10 days before being killed in an Commissioner Roy is not perturbed by these. "We are not making any diplomatic or political statements. The accused are giving us vital information and admitting their guilt after being made aware of their repercussions. We don't have any reason to disbelieve the accused." When asked about the RDX trail, Roy said it needed to be there is more work to be done and the police hope to follow the missing links through further interrogations of those now in custody under the MCOCA. The idea is to use the law to convert any confession into evidence. Among the questions the police must be seeking answers to are how many groups have filtered through, how many modules are active and what the extent of the sleeper network in Maharashtra and elsewhere the evidence has to be credible but patching the missing links is vital not just to prove a point to Pakistan. Tying up the loose ends and the success of the investigations will be the first step towards preventing the next attack. Or else the loose ends could become the beginning of the next terror to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch


Indian Express
4 days ago
- Indian Express
Bengaluru prison psychiatrist bought phones for Rs 8,000, sold them to prisoners for Rs 25,000: NIA
An investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the usage of mobile phones by a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-linked terror convict housed in the Bengaluru Central Prison has revealed that a prison psychiatrist was procuring mobile phones from a local mobile store for prices ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 and selling it to prisoners for Rs 25,000. The NIA, which is investigating a prison radicalisation case, where the LeT-linked convict Thadiyantavide Naseer, 47, is accused of radicalising youths in the prison, arrested prison psychiatrist Dr S Nagaraj on July 8 for allegedly supplying mobile phones to Naseer and other prisoners at the Bengaluru Central prison. Naseer has been convicted in a terrorism case in Kerala and is currently under trial for the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts case and the prison radicalisation case. The NIA has now sought to question some prisoners in the Bengaluru central jail who were alleged recipients of mobile phones sold by the prison psychiatrist through prison intermediaries. A special court for terrorism cases has allowed the NIA to question a murder convict from Karnataka who is housed in the Bengaluru Central Prison as part of further investigations. The NIA probe has found that the prison psychiatrist lived a lavish life with frequent visits to holiday resorts around the country and that one of his two mistresses allegedly helped him in procuring and supplying phones to prisoners in the Bengaluru Central Prison. The NIA has found during its investigations that Dr Nagaraj purchased mobile phones from a mobile store near his house and 'illegally took/smuggled them into the prison and further handed over the said mobile phones to the convicted prisoners'. The prison psychiatrist took Rs 25,000 per mobile from the prisoners while he purchased the mobile phones at prices ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000, the NIA said in court filings. The NIA is investigating the source of funds for convicted prisoners like T Naseer, who are lodged in the high security barrack of the prison, to buy cell phones. Naseer is alleged to have been sold phones at a higher cost by the psychiatrist than other prisoners. 'These mobile phones are purchased under the pseudo name of Raghu. He has also disclosed that the mobile phone used by accused No.1 T Naseer was also purchased by him from Priya mobile in the pseudo name of Raghu,' the NIA court has noted. The psychiatrist allegedly received cash from the convicted prisoners for smuggling phones into the prison. The special court has directed prison authorities to allow NIA officials to conduct further investigations in the prison on the phone supplies and usage by T Naseer and others. The LeT-linked Naseer, who has been in the Bengaluru prison since 2009, was accused in 2023 of being a key player in a prison radicalisation initiative where he allegedly radicalised eight undertrial youths lodged in the prison from 2017 to 2023 to take up jihad when they are released from prison. Seven youths are arrested and one is still missing. Seven of the eight prisoners arrested in the case, including Naseer, moved an application in the special court on July 7 to plead guilty in the prison radicalisation, terror conspiracy case, which the NIA is currently investigating. On July 8, the NIA arrested three more people in the case: Dr Nagaraj, a Central Armed Reserve policeman; Chan Bhasha; and Anees Fathima, the mother of Junaid Ahmed, a missing accused in the radicalisation case, for allegedly aiding the prison activities of Naseer. Apart from Naseer, the other arrested accused in the prison case are Syed Suhail, 24; Mohammed Umar, 30; Zahid Tabrez, 27; Syed Mudassir Pasha, 29; Mohammed Faisal, 29; Salman Khan, 29; and Vikram Kumar alias Chota Usman, 25. Among the three arrested on July 8, Anees Fathima is accused of facilitating financial transactions between various accused persons in the conspiracy case, the policeman Pasha is accused of providing police escort details of T Naseer to other accused persons on payment of bribes, and the psychiatrist Dr Nagaraj is accused of smuggling phones into the prison. The investigation of the prison terror conspiracy case was taken over by the NIA in October 2023 after the Bengaluru police conducted the early investigations. The probe agencies have alleged that the accused procured arms, ammunition and digital devices for terrorist activities after they were radicalised in prison by Naseer. The initial Bengaluru police probe indicated that Naseer, who had been in prison for over 13 years, radicalised a few members of a group of 20 youths who were lodged in the Bengaluru central prison between 2017 and 2019 for the murder of a businessman in Bengaluru in October 2017. The police alleged that Naseer inspired Junaid Ahmed, 29, one of the 20 youths who were arrested in 2017, in the case of the murder of the businessman, to take up the cause of his religion and facilitated the creation of a module. Junaid Ahmed left the country for Dubai around 2021 and has not been traced yet. Naseer allegedly radicalised Junaid's parents, Anees Fathima and Abdul Basheer, when they were lodged in the Bengaluru prison over a 2017 sandalwood theft case. 'Naseer had orchestrated the radicalisation and subsequent criminal activities, including plans to facilitate his own escape enroute to the court from the prison and a conspiracy to further the operations of the proscribed terrorist organisation LeT,' the NIA said last year. Naseer who was arrested in 2009 by the Bengaluru police for the 2008 serial blasts in the city which killed one person is among 18 members of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) convicted for seven years in 2018 by an NIA court in Kerala for being part of a terror training camp at Vagamon in Kerala in 2007.