Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 14, 2006
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1748774.cms
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, Mumbai, went to an anxious "mother" in Karachi.
The caller assured his mother that he was
all right (salamat) but could not disclose his location and, saying 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 crucial.
It's backbreaking and intensive work. But
as communication had to be the key in such a meticulously 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 Thruway sat phones, the ability to track which is
limited to a few organisations.
Most police forces cannot track these hand-held
sat phones, now common in West Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, the
calls are often routed through a third country in a variation of conferencing.
In Kathmandu, the police on Thursday confirmed
arresting Pakistanis for dealing with RDX but the connection to the Mumbai
blasts was not established.
"There could be some connection ... we
are not certain at this point," an 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. Two of those held
have been identified as Aftab Moiuddin and Ghulam Hussain Cheema. RAW sources
said there was, as yet, no definitive link between the Pakistanis and the
blasts.
The men were arrested from Kathmandu hotels
the same night the blasts took place. The local media had on Thursday reported
that two persons were arrested from Hotel Everest and the others from a hotel
near Thamel, Kathmandu's tourist hub.
A senior police officer said two of the arrested
were released after initial investigations, but the other two were still in
custody.
Asked why they were taken into custody on
the night of the blasts, another officer said anyone who hides and deals with
explosives like RDX is considered a terrorist.