Author: Uday Mahurkar with Subhash Mishra
Publication: India Today
Date: September 1, 2008
URL: http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=1&task=view&id=13556§ionid=36&issueid=68&latn=2
Introduction: A swiftly coordinated crackdown
by police forces and security agencies from eight states yields vital clues
to the serial blasts across the country. The leads point to a single home-grown
jihadi group behind all the recent terror attacks.
As India celebrated her 61st Independence
Day, police officials of the Ahmedabad crime branch were busy in their office
in Gaekwad Haveli.
A team led by Joint Commissioner Ashish Bhatia
and Deputy Commissioner Abhay Chudasama was interrogating some of the 43 suspects
detained for the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts.
They were allegedly linked to the banned Students
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), now rechristened Indian Mujahideen (IM).
The team was trying to unearth leads to the
several unsolved blast cases that rocked the country over the past three years
from Mumbai to Varanasi to Jaipur to Hyderabad. By noon, their efforts had
begun to yield results.
By 8.30 p.m., a country-wide list of about
84 SIMI activists culled from the interrogation was faxed to the police of
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
and Kerala. The action was swift. By the next day, 80 of the suspects in the
fax list had been picked up across the seven states.
However, the only glitch came from Uttar Pradesh
where senior police officials were reluctant to hand over Mufti Abu Bashir,
28, to the Gujarat Police. Bashir, a resident of Azamgarh district, is the
main accused in the Ahmedabad blasts case.
A Gujarat cop-who was interrogating Bashir
in Lucknow-threatened to shoot him if they didn't get an instant transit remand
to take Bashir to Gujarat. The hesitation of the Uttar Pradesh Police to hand
him over was apparently due to political pressure.
The picture that emerged from interrogation
of the suspects-now 89 in all with 35 from Gujarat alone-was both alarming
and heartening. It yielded vital clues to the 2006 Mumbai blasts, the Jaipur
blasts, the Hyderabad Lumbini Park blasts and the Uttar Pradesh court blasts.
Leads are also expected in the Samjhauta Express
and Malegaon blasts. However, the fresh picture of the SIMI network showed
that a new and deadlier organisation had emerged, capable of planning and
executing devastating blasts on its own without any logistical support.
The breakthrough in the Ahmedabad blasts by
the Gujarat Police and national security agencies has discredited the belief
of the intelligence agencies that SIMI was not involved in direct action and
that it was running for cover after its ban.
Instead, it emerged that SIMI had not only
grown but had also acquired striking capability with regard to planning and
executing terror operations.
As Bhatia, an expert on SIMI, puts it, "In
all, five terror training camps were organised by arrested SIMI chief Safdar
Nagori in four states in the past one year. Around 200 radical Muslim youths
participated. If all of them are arrested, most of the key terror cases in
the country in the past two years would be solved." The statement was
only pointing to the transformation of SIMI to a deadly terror outfit.
The biggest example of SIMI's new-found capability
was the Ahmedabad blasts operation, carried out with precision. It involved
over 60 SIMI activists, including 35 from Gujarat with the rest providing
support from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Around 15 of them have been arrested. The
main conspirators in the case were Bashir and Abdus Subhan Qureshi, 27, alias
Tauqir, a software expert from Mumbai's Mira Road area, now absconding. He
is also a key conspirator in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts (which took nearly
200 lives) and in the Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh court blasts.
The two had emerged as Nagori's right-hand
men till his arrest with 12 others from Indore in March last. After Nagori's
arrest, Bashir became 'jimmewar' (president) of IM and Tauqir was installed
as 'ansar' (general secretary).
Bashir's arrest was carried out with precision.
A joint team of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh police reached his house in Dinapara
village of Azamgarh on August 14 pretending to discuss a marriage proposal
for his younger brother.
The moment Bashir emerged, he was pushed into
a waiting Tata Sumo and whisked away. His family registered a case of kidnapping
only to be informed that he had been taken away by the police.
Azamgarh is not new to criminals- underworld
don Abu Salem, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, is originally from
here. The region is known to be a breeding ground for Mumbai-based mafia gangs
and for terrorist outfits, who are swelling their cadres from this district.
The countdown to solving the Ahmedabad blasts
case began on July 29 when a shaken Muslim in Bharuch took a morning bus to
Ahmedabad. He went straight to Crime Branch officials and told them that he
had seen the two Maruti cars used in the blasts being driven by four Muslim
youth.
They had been tenants at his two-storey house
for a couple of months before vacating it a few days before the blasts. He
identified the cars from their numbers published in newspapers on the third
day of the blasts.
Police traced the calls on his mobile and
tracked down one of the tenants' number. They later discovered that he was
Tauqir. Next was a tip-off from the Central Intelligence Bureau that an old
SIMI worker called Zahid Sheikh who lived in Juhapura in Ahmedabad could be
a prime suspect.
He was picked up on August 3. On the third
day during intense interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the blasts
and named SIMI activists from Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Bharuch.
Simultaneously, monitoring of the phone calls
of some Vadodara-based SIMI suspects and intense vigil at the behest of Police
Commissioner Rakesh Asthana revealed vital clues.
In Ahmedabad, the police picked up Yunus Mansuri,
31, a stationery and grocery shop owner; Samsuddin Sheikh, 32, a sewing thread
seller; Mohammed Arif Kagzi, 34, a former Arabic teacher; Gyasuddin Ansari,
29, a senior SIMI activist and garment store owner along with an embroidery
worker.
In Vadodara, Imran Sheikh, 34, who has done
a course in journalism and human rights from MS University, was detained.
So were Usman Agarbattiwala, 24, a commerce graduate, and Iqbal Sheikh, 20.
Sajid Mansuri, a notorious SIMI leader who
had been absconding since 2001 in a case of anti-national activity registered
against SIMI in Surat, was picked up in Bahruch. He also figures in the Jaipur
blasts case.
Iqbal was with him on May 13 in Jaipur when
the blasts rocked the city. But the most important names that were revealed
during the interrogation of Zahid and Yunus were those of Bashir and Tauqir.
The cross-questioning threw up the involvement
of SIMI activists who attended terror camps in the Wagamon jungles of Kerala
in December and in Pavagadh jungles near Vadodara in January last but were
not directly involved in the Ahmedabad blasts. The conspiracy to plant the
bombs in Gujarat was hatched at Wagamon camp and was carried forward into
the Pavagadh camp.
At least nine SIMI activists from Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra planted the bombs in Ahmedabad. It helped that
they were not locals, making it difficult for them to be identified. They
were assisted by a team of Gujarati SIMI workers.
The reconnaissance was carried out by Iqbal
and Qaimuddin Kapadia of Vadodara, who is absconding. One of the dry runs
was carried out on July 14 when Ahmedabad observed a bandh on the Asaram Bapu
issue.
The reconnaissance of the Ahmedabad Civil
Hospital-where 36 people died in the blast-was also carried out by Iqbal while
his father was in the same hospital for a surgery from June 23 to July 9.
Iqbal had stayed at the hospital for three nights where he met Zahid, Samsuddin,
Yunus and Agarbattiwala.
They identified the spot where the car bomb
would go off. It was Zahid who planted the car before walking away. Agarbattiwala
played an additional role-his laptop was used by Tauqir to programme the IEDs
in Surat which failed to explode due to a technical error.
During interrogation, Imran told the police
how parts of the bombs were assembled in a Vadodara house while the rest were
put together in Bapunagar and Vatva area in Ahmedabad where Bashir and Tauqir
had stayed. Forensic experts have confirmed traces of ammonium nitrate-used
to make the bombs-in all the three houses.
Responsibilities in the operations were clearly
earmarked. Yunus and Kagzi-who are experts in delivering jihadi speeches-
were entrusted with organising and coordinating meetings of the core groups.
The group held four core meetings between April and July. The last one was
on July 20 at Zahid's house in Juhapura.
Bashir did not attend the meeting as he is
believed to have left Ahmedabad for Azamgarh around July 15 after finalising
the blasts plan and leaving it to the executioners to carry it out. Tauqir
reportedly left Ahmedabad on July 26 morning. Two of these meetings were held
in Yunus's house in Bapunagar.
Zahid and Sajid carried out the planning and
procurement of cycles and the materials for the bombs. Tauqir bought ammonium
nitrate and timers for the bombs. Sajid was one of the main links between
the executioners and the masterminds. Sleuths say he is the only one apart
from Bashir and Tauqir who knows about unsolved blast cases involving SIMI.
One of the main factors that led to the cracking
of the case was the analysis of 125 GB of mobile phone data by the Gujarat
Police and forensic experts. They tracked calls made between July 23 and July
26 from five phones, which were switched off at 4 p.m. on July 26, less than
three hours before the blasts.
The sleuths also matched the phone data with
the movement of the two cars that came to Ahmedabad on July 9 and 17 respectively
from towards Mumbai. These cars were used in the Civil Hospital and the LG
Hospital in Ahmedabad. While on roaming, the five mobile phones could only
receive calls, which all came from STD booths.
Incidentally, SIMI's funding remains a mystery,
with most of its money coming from secret donations. One of its main donors
is believed to be a Gujarat-based Muslim businessman who is very close to
a top politician of a national secular party.
The strategic training given to SIMI cadres
teaches them to pick up journalism and legal professions. The countdown to
the Ahmedabad blasts began in December last when Nagori and his brother Kamruddin
Nagori organised a full-fledged training camp for the SIMI cadres in the Wagamon
jungles near Idduki in Kerala.
The camp trained over 35 boys in terrorist
activities inflamed by fiery speeches from Bashir. This was the third camp
to be held under Nagori's direction after he fell out in 2006 with Mizbul
Haq, a moderate who was against his aim to plunge into terrorism.
Haq had taken over as president (jimmewar)
from Shahid Badr Falahi in 2006. Haq wanted SIMI to join politics while Nagori
wanted to turn to terrorism. The two parted ways and the majority went along
with Nagori who rechristened SIMI as IM.
The earlier three camps were held under Nagori's
leadership at Castle Rock near Hubli in April 2007, in Dharwad district of
Karnataka in August 2007 and in Choral near Indore in November 2007.
The terror camp in the Pavagadh jungles near
Vadodara in January was crucial for the Ahmedabad attacks. It trained nearly
24 SIMI activists, including 16 from Gujarat, of whom most have been arrested.
Here, the blue print for the Ahmedabad and
Surat blasts started taking shape, a theme that had been initiated at the
Wagamon camp. But for Nagori's arrest along with his brother in March, Ahmedabad
and Surat would have been hit probably in February-end or in March.
With Nagori's departure, SIMI's leadership
passed on to Bashir and Tauqir, who started putting the plan in shape. In
April-end or May, they rented two houses in Ahmedabad and another in Bharuch,
which has emerged as a key centre of Deobandi radicalism in Gujarat. Mansuri,
a native of Surat, too had moved to Bharuch around the same time.
There is great excitement in the Gujarat Police
and security agencies about the early success in the investigation which is
like a first in India's history of tackling terror. Says Gujarat Director-General
of Police, P.C. Pande, "We have strong evidence to pin them down on charges
of conspiracy and execution. There are still some loose ends which need to
be tied up."
What is significant is the fact that the Ahmedabad
blasts probe has opened the doors for tracking the roots of home-grown jihad.
Close on the heels of the indications that
Mansuri and Imran had played key roles in the Jaipur blasts, the Rajasthan
Police nabbed 17 SIMI activists including two doctors. Tauqir is now the man
being chased. The country could still contain the menace of terrorism if it
follows the path shown by Gujarat.
================================
Modus operandi
The informer: A man in Bharuch who had rented
out a house to four persons saw a newspaper report and recognised the two
cars used in the Ahmedabad blasts as the same cars were used by them. He informed
Ahmedabad Crime Branch. The quartet turned out to be SIMI terrorists.
The IB lead: The Intelligence Bureau informed
the police that Zahid Sheikh, an old SIMI hand was involved. Zahid was picked
up on August 3 and he revealed the names of two more accomplices, Sajid Mansuri
and Imran Sheikh, on the third day.
Phones: Zahid's further inputs along with
Imran's and monitoring of the phones of Vadodara-based SIMI activists led
police to Yunus Mansuri, Samsuddin Sheikh, Mohammed Arif Kagzi and Gyasuddin
Ansari.
Terror camps: Their interrogation revealed
the involvement of SIMI activists who attended terror camps in jungles in
Kerala and near Vadodara.
Making the bombs: Imran told the police how
the bombs were assembled in his Vadodara house and that the rest of the bombs
were put together in Vatva and Bapunagar areas of Ahmedabad.
Mobile phones: Calls made from five other
cell phones, which were switched off three hours before the blasts, were tracked.
Mastermind: Mufti Abu Bashir, 28, the main
accused in the Ahmedabad blasts who studied at the Deoband madrasa, charted
the deadly plan and left it to SIMI executioners to carry it ahead.