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Mumbai blasts : Evidence of Pak-based terror links

	September 25, 2006

Even while the Government has been defending its deal with Pakistan on setting up a joint mechanism to fight terror, evidence is emerging of the links of Pakistan-based terrorist organisations with the Mumbai train blasts and the more recent Malegaon explosions. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil said in Mumbai on Sept. 20 that two of the suspects arrested for the train blasts have admitted to links with Pakistan-based terrorist groups.



The breakthrough came after investigators subjected two brothers, Faisal and Muzammil Sheikh, to narco-analysis or truth-serum tests.



Patil said the entire conspiracy behind the train blasts would be unveiled in the next few days. “We will take maximum eight to 10 days to arrest all suspects,” he added.



Patil said the investigators had zeroed in on the actual perpetrators of the blasts and attempts were being made to prevent them from escaping.



Meanwhile, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), in its application to extend the remand of the two brothers, said the narco-analysis tests on them had revealed important clues which needed to be pursued further.



Sources said both brothers were part of a network of sleeper cells set up by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to carry out terror attacks across India. Investigators are probing links between Dawood Ibrahim’s underworld elements and the LeT amidst intelligence reports that both groups are sharing resources and conducting joint operations.



Senior officials suspect the involvement of at least five Pakistanis in the Mumbai blasts. One of them is believed to have been killed in the explosions while the others are reported to have escaped to Nepal, and then to Pakistan. An official said that as per initial reports, RDX was transported from Bangladesh.



Activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were involved and their main intention was to create communal tension leading to a major law and order problem not only in Mumbai, but in the whole of Maharashtra.



Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy said that the Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out the bombings with active support from SIMI.



On July 11, seven RDX-based ‘cocktail’ bombs ripped through seven first class coaches of suburban trains during rush hour, killing 192 people and injuring hundreds.



Faisal, according to senior investigators, directed a team of between seven to nine Pakistani Lashkar operatives along with six local Lashkar members to execute the blasts. The sources said Faisal Sheikh had revealed that the 15,000 Saudi riyal found on him had been remitted directly by his Pakistan-based handler and alleged mastermind of the blasts, Azam Cheema.



The anti-terrorist squad feels the Malegaon blasts, the serial train blasts in Mumbai and the May 2006 haul of explosives in Aurangabad could well be inter-linked.



In a related development, the Gujarat police claim to have busted a major terrorist module with the arrest on Tuesday of two more suspected terrorists having links with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, planning to carry out nationwide subversive activities at an opportune time.



Ahmedabad crime branch Deputy Commissioner Manoj Shashidhar said the arrests followed the nabbing on Monday of Illyus Memon and Khalid, who revealed that about 20 youth from Gujarat had gone for terrorist training in Pakistan. Most of them returned after completing their training and fanned out to different parts of the country.



Shashidhar did not rule out more arrests in the next few days. All the four arrested were believed to be members of the LeT “sleeper cell’’ module.



According to the police, Illyus Memon was the second-in-command to Aslam Kashmiri, who was suspected to have been involved in the recent Mumbai train blasts. He escaped to Pakistan.



Shashidhar said if any time, the terrorists planned to carry out nationwide blasts simultaneously, it would not be difficult to organise the crime through the network. He said it was clear that the terror network had undergone a virtual “corporatisation” for better performance.





More convictions in 1993 blasts



Meanwhile, several more people have been convicted by the TADA special court in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. They include Abdul Ghani Turk, a former driver of Tiger Memon, who was found guilty on September 19 of parking an RDX laden jeep at Worli’s Century Bazaar that killed 113 people and injured 227, the highest causalities in a single explosion that day. Special Court Judge Pramod Kode said Turk was convicted on 13 counts on the basis of his confession and the evidence given by an eyewitness. The maximum sentence he could get is death while the minimum is a life-term. On Friday, Sept. 22, the court convicted Dawood Phanse alias Taklya, 82 and Sharif Parkar, alias Dada, 73, who had ferried a deadly cargo of RDX to blast master-mind Tiger Memon on the Raigad coast for the 1993 blasts. The court held them guilty of helping land the arms and RDX consignments from Dubai. They helped Tiger smuggle arms.



On Thursday, Sept. 21, the Court convicted Pervez Nazir Ahmed Sheikh in connection with the bomb blasts at Katha Bazaar and Bandra. He rode a scooter laden with RDX explosives and a timer device to Katha bazaar in south Mumbai where the vehicle exploded killing four persons and injuring 21.



On Monday, Sept. 18, the Court convicted two aides of prime accused Tiger Memon for causing an explosion at Plaza theatre which killed 10 persons.



Judge Kode found Asgar Yusuf Mukadam, former accountant of Tiger Memon, and Shahnawaz Abdul Kader Qureshi guilty of parking an RDX-laden car at Plaza theatre which exploded on March 12 1993, killing 10 persons and injuring 37 besides damaging property worth Rs. 87 lakhs.



Mukadam was driving the car while Qureshi accompanied him. The court also found Qureshi guilty of undertaking arms training in Pakistan and participating in landing operations of arms and ammunition at Shekhadi coast in Raigad district as part of the conspiracy. This was the first judicial finding by the court on accused obtaining arms training in the neighbouring country.





Anti-terrorism mechanism : Political heat continues



The BJP and the Congress continue to trade charges over the recent India-Pakistan agreement to set up a joint anti-terror mechanism.



Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has described the Havana joint statement as a conspiracy against India.



In his first response to the latest Indo-Pak statement in RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya, he asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reveal what had happened behind the scenes at Havana.



Vajpayee’s talk of a “conspiracy” can be traced to a new element in the dialogue - delinking of the peace process and cross-border terrorism. The Vajpayee Government had made it incumbent upon Pakistan to check cross-border terrorism for keeping the peace dialogue on. The BJP’s perception is that once this separation takes place, President Musharraf may build pressure on India to resolve other issues including the Kashmir issue, while showing no movement on anti-terrorism measures.



Vajpayee told Panchjanya that “Whatever took place, was not good.” He felt the implementation of the joint statement “would pose a danger to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.” “After obtaining this joint statement, Pakistan would take further steps to fulfil its evil designs,” said the former Prime Minister.



Earlier, former External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha described the Havana development as a sell out of national interest. In a statement in New Delhi on Sept. 20, he said the Havana agreement is a major deviation from India’s traditional stance and wondered if this was the first step to joint control of Jammu and Kashmir.



BJP general secretary Arun Jaitely said the Havana joint statement amounts to what he described as “unprecedented” capitulation of India before Pakistan on the issue of terrorism. It has wiped out in one stroke all that India has achieved in its war against terror through years of hard work with the international community, and with Pakistan,” he said.



Observers say that the Havana development has given the BJP another stick to beat the Congress and to refurbish the BJP’s hawkish image on terrorism. This may allow the BJP to reinforce its line on the Congress being soft on terror.



The Congress has rejected the BJP allegations and insinuations about the Indo-Pak joint mechanism on terror.