Author:
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: June 22, 2004
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20040621111100&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&Full~Story
If you thought Pune was all about
educational institutions, manufacturing industries and a retirement home,
think again.
The city's terrorist links, which
started in mid-eighties, once again came to the fore with the recent killing
of suspected LeT hitman Javed Shaikh in Ahmedabad. And the reason was complete
failure of the intelligence network.
``It is true that we get little
information from our local intelligence network. There are many reasons
for it,'' a senior police officer says.
He said the main factor affecting
the functioning of the Local Intelligence Bureau (LIB), which works under
the Special Branch (SB) of Pune police, was lack of skilled staff. ``Nobody
wants to work in SB as it is viewed as less lucrative,'' the officer says.
LeT by itself is not new to the
city. In June 2002, the arrest of three youths from Pune Cantonment and
Kondhwa areas, in connection with the Mulund blasts established a connection
between the outfit and the city.
Though Javed's terror links are
yet to be established, Pune's tryst with terrorism began back in 1986 when
retired Army general Arun Kumar Vaidya, who was the Army chief during Operation
Bluestar, was assassinated by terrorists in the vicinity of Queens Gardens.
They had even looted a bank at Model Colony before carrying out the operation.
The arrest of these terrorists from
Punjab _ Jinda and Sukha _ revealed they had set up bases at Kharadi on
the Pune- Ahmednagar road and at Pimpri on the Mumbai-Pune highway.
Soon after General Vaidya's assassination,
a special branch was formed to gather intelligence about terrorists, but
its activities mostly remained on paper.
Six years later, in 1992, the Punjab
terrorists struck again, this time, to free their fellow ultras lodged
in Yerawada Central Prison. They unsuccessfully tried to smuggle in a revolver
inside the jail before Jinda and Sukha were hanged to death. Investigations
showed they had developed a strong base at Kondhwa.
Again, in June 1999, a Pakistani
national Sayeed Ahmed Mohammed Desai, who was married to an Indian and
suspected to be an ISI operative, was arrested from the city along with
six people in a spying case. Desai had come to India in 1996 on a visa,
but on his arrest was found carrying an Indian passport, a driving licence
and a ration card _ all forged.
A year later, a Babbar Khalsa terrorist
Rajbir Singh Sandhu was found with bullet wounds in Aundh area. He died
in a private hospital here.
A common thread that binds all these
cases is lack of intelligence information. Police officers blame it on
manpower shortage and paucity of funds. ``The LIB deputes a constable to
look after the jurisdiction of an entire police station,'' an officer says.
As for the constables, their constant
complaint is they do not get any money from the secret service fund to
develop their network of informers.
THE DREADED LINK
1986 Punjab terrorists, Jinda and
Sukha, assassinate Gen Vaidya
1992 Punjab terrorists make an unsuccessful
attempt to free Jinda and Sukha from Yerawada jail
1999 Pak national Sayeed Ahmed Mohammed
Desai arrested in a spying case
2000 Babbar Khalsa terrorist Rajbir
Singh Sandhu found with bullet wounds
2002 Three people with LeT links
arrested in connection with Mulund blasts
2004 Javed Shaikh, suspected LeT
hitman, killed in Ahmedabad encounter
