Author: Deeptiman Tiwary and Abhijit Sathe
Publication: Mumbai Mirror
Date: December 10, 2010
URL: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2010121020101210030853929a2699527/Here%E2%80%99s-how-politicians-come-to-terrorists%E2%80%99-aid-.html
Suspected Varanasi blast plotter, Dr Shahnawaz
Khan, was almost nabbed after the 2008 Batla House encounter; political influence
helped him evade cop net
If only political pressure had kept itself
away from the law, two-year-old Swastika Sharma would not have died in the
Varanasi blast a couple of days ago. That's because, Indian Mujahideen operative
Dr Shahnawaz Khan, who the police suspect to have plotted the Varanasi blast,
would have been nabbed almost two years ago.
In September 2008, the Crime Branch had busted a module of the Indian Mujahideen
by arresting 21 of its operatives in connection with multiple blasts in Ahmedabad.
When the Batla House encounter took place
in New Delhi on September 19, 2008, two of Khan's associates were killed.
At the time of the encounter, Khan and a few of his operatives were in Lucknow.
Fearing that the police were trailing him,
Khan escaped to Sarai Mir village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh where
he holed up in a small house.
The police, who had got wind of his whereabouts,
tried closing in on Khan and his associates. However, political interference
ensured that this did not happen.
"The Batla House encounter was just in
the news and the situation in Azamgarh was politically charged at the time,"
sources in the Mumbai Crime Branch said. "Thanks to politicians from
the Congress and Samajwadi Party, no police team was allowed to enter that
part of Azamgarh."
A police team was deployed, but the Uttar
Pradesh Special Task Force did not allow them to enter, the source said.
"In fact, their entry too was banned
because, by then, the encounter in Delhi had assumed political proportions
and politicians were streaming into the village."
The officer said that the Crime Branch team
camped there for 15 days, but had to return empty-handed. "Had he been
caught then, neither the Delhi blast nor the one in Varanasi would have taken
place," the officer said.
Six months later, after matters cooled off,
the terrorists fanned out to Dubai and Pakistan via Nepal. The Uttar Pradesh
police have claimed that they strongly suspect Dr Khan's module to be responsible
for the Varanasi blast. To buttress their claim, the police said that Khan
was in telephonic contact with certain people in Uttar Pradesh last month.
They said that all these calls had been made from Dubai where Khan had fled.
What the police are now trying to ascertain
is whether Khan had recently come to India or coordinated the blast from outside.
Meanwhile, tracking the terror email sent
after the blast, the police have asked Google for all communication details
of the Gmail account from which the mail was sent.
The police suspect that the boys recruited
by Indian Mujahideen operative, Mohsin Chowdhary, had dashed off the mail.
"Chowdhary was the man behind the mail
sent to media houses before the Ahmedabad blasts," another Crime Branch
officer said. "He has been absconding and seems to have inducted fresh
recruits who are now doing the job for him."
