Author: Stanley Theodore in Hyderabad
Publication: The Statesman
Date: February 17, 2003
The bizarre serial killings in which
nine persons were murdered on communal bias, all by slitting of throats,
through last year is believed to be the handiwork of ISI agents.
The four Muslim youth, arrested
on 31 January, are activists of the local Dargah-e-Jehad-O-Sahadath (martyrdom
in holy war), a front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiyaba.
The DJS has denied responsibility,
but the habeas corpus petition they filed in Court for Imtiaz has made
their claims hollow, senior police officers told The Statesman.
The DJS' involvement in other cases
aimed at creating communal trouble across the country was cracked by the
state police recently. DJS activists through 2002 used their car to offer
lifts at night to unsuspecting passengers, identify thier religion and
then kill them.
Ironically the Chandrababu Naidu
government wanted to play down the DJS-LeT angle. Police said the government's
contention was, the country was recovering from the Gujarat riots and a
disclosure of this magnitude could re-create communal tension.
Imtiaz was caught four days ago.
Earlier his four accomplices - Zaffar Khan, Mukhtar, Khalil and Akbar Khan
- were remanded to judicial custody and moved to the Charlapally jail.
Convicts there boycotted these killers for their "gruesome killings". They
have since been shifted to a separate cell.
The fact that a Lashkar module or
cell was in operation in Hyderabad was confirmed when 11 boys in Chennai
were caught. This was soon after the bomb explosion outside Saibaba temple
in Saroornagar on 21 November, where two persons were killed and twenty
others were injured.
This bomb was packed and planted
in a scooter by Md Azam and Akram. They procured the explosives and detonators
from Mumbai. Azam travelled to Pakistan and from there went to Saudi Arabia,
where he and his associates hatched the plot to foment communal trouble
by triggering a series of blasts in the country.
Both were killed in two encounters
in Hyderabad and Karimnagar after the Saibaba temple explosion. These two
were connected to the two bomb blasts in Mumbai recently, but their exact
involvement is yet to be confirmed. Actually the larger plot was to trigger
series of explosions outside temples in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Tamil Nadu police informed their Andhra Pradesh counterparts that the Chennai
gang was aware of the Hyderabad killers, police said.
Azam and Akram were associates of
local DJS chief Mahoob Ali, a retired government employee. Ali has been
giving training to Muslim youth to fight "Hindu terrorists". He trained
as many as 20,000 youths in martial arts, unarmed combat and use of swords.
As part of the training was severe indoctrination against Hindus and even
exhortation to kill prominent Hindu leaders.
Here a group was formed to kill
VHP leaders Mr G Pulla Reddy and Mr Narayan Reddy. Akram scripted the plot
but his plans could not materialise. The plan to kill the two VHP leaders
and execute several explosions in key cities were to be done in the guise
of avenging the Babri Masjid demolition in the run up to its tenth anniversary.
During the Gujarat riots, police
said, there was a large influx of Gujarati Muslim youths to Hyderabad.
Part of them belonged to Muslim fundamentalist outfits there who joined
their Hyderabadi counterparts here. A core group was formed at the DJS
to avenge the killings of the Muslims there.
"The DJS-Lashkar collaboration is
established. The fact that these serial killings started soon after Godhra,
the link of these operatives to various communal incidents and fundamentalists
in different states, the fact that the operatives wanted to spread the
incidents far and wide is indicative of the ISI role.As of now the nexus
between the killers and the fundamentalist organisation has been established.
The ISI's logistical role in this drama is being probed," a top officer
said.
