Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 14, 2006
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1748649.cms
Introduction: 4 Pak nationals nabbed in Nepal
Just after the Mumbai blasts, a call from
Karachi to Dhaka said: "Mubarakan, mubarakan (congratulations)"
- a clear mission-accomplished message.
Around the same time, a call from PCO near
Juhu in Mumbai went to an anxious "mother" in Karachi. The caller
assured his mother that he was alright (salaamed) but could not disclose his
location and, saying that he could not talk at length, hung up.
An intensive intelligence operation involving
central agencies and Mumbai police is on, trawling telecom gateways in Mumbai,
Delhi and Kolkata to track calls which contain "footprints" to Tuesday's
serial blasts. The gateways route calls to Pakistan and Bangladesh, the two
places where the terror mastermind could be holed up.
The task is daunting, but is crucial. It is
desperately backbreaking and intensive work. But as communication had to be
the key in such a meticulously-designed terror operation, there were bound
to be some tell-tale evidence-use of codes for bombs-that the perpetrators
would have used.
Never a simple task, the job of investigators
has been made even more difficult because the post-blast chaos at the train
stations may well have destroyed precious forensic evidence and the mobile
handsets of some of the terrorists, who may have been able to alight from
the trains on time.
As part of the cat-and-mouse game, terrorists,
said officials, have been getting wiser. No PCO is used twice. Masterminds
always interface through Thuraya sat phones, the ability to track which is
limited to a few organisations. Indeed, most police forces cannot track these
hand-held sat phones which are now commonly used in West Asia, Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
Moreover, the calls are often routed through
a third country in a variation of conferencing. But the sleuths are confident
of finding the clues by going back 30 days, and if necessary, more. The heightened
intelligence had a fallout with some arrests of Pakistani nationals in Kathmandu.
In Kathmandu, police on Thursday confirmed
that they have arrested four Pakistanis is for dealing with RDX but the connection
to the Mumbai blasts was not established. "There could be some connection
between them and Tuesday's Mumbai blasts, but we are not certain at this point,"
a senior police officer said.
Investigations in Nepal have been joined by
an Indian team comprising RAW, Delhi Police Special Cell and IB officials.
The tip-off was from India.