They had planned rocket attack on Ganesh utsav in Vadodara

Vadodara police on Sunday seized a homemade rocket launcher and explosives from Zaheer Amirrudin Sheikh, a resident of Patel faliya who was picked up with his four accomplices as a precautionary measure ahead of Ganesh Visarjan last week.

After their interrogation it was revealed that they had hidden explosives and a rocket launcher in a cart in their locality. They had planned to disrupt peace during Ganesh immersion processions. Police recovered the explosive and arrested Zaheer and his accomplices Amin Shah (Fatehgunj), Usmaan Gafar( Fatehpura), Iqbal Sheikh and Mushtaq Sheikh (Patel faliya) under conspiracy act, explosives act and arms act. All accused were produces in court and are on police remands till September 11.

Zaheer was interrogated in connection with 2008 blast in Hathikhana area of the city and was also involved in riots during Ganesh visarjan in the city last year.

It should be mentioned here that last year during Ganesh festival, a group of fanatic Muslims had set a Mandir on fire and attacked Ganesh immersion processions . This year Vadodara police had detained 12,000 persons before Ganesh Mahotsav to prevent any attack on Ganesh immersion processions.