Author: Sagnik Chowdhury
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: October 7, 2008
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/98-in-XII-19-lakhjob-went-to-US-many-times/370288/
The arrest of 31-year-old Mohammed Mansoor
Asgar Peerbhoy alias Munawar alias Mannu along with 14 others in connection
with a string of bomb blasts and terror plots in recent months has alarmed
security agencies not only because he was a brilliant student and a well-paid
computer engineer who worked with a global Internet firm, but also because
he had managed to visit the United States on work several times without arousing
any suspicion.
Peerbhoy, sources told 'The Indian Express',
held a senior position at the Internet firm's office in Pune and earned an
annual salary of Rs 19 lakh. He is alleged to have headed the "media
cell" of Indian Mujahideen which drafted and sent e-mails that spewed
venom at the government and politicians minutes before bomb blasts.
A "brilliant student" who came from
a "very well-to-do" family, he was working as a principal software
engineer in the MNC when he was picked up on September 28. "It is really
shocking that someone with Peerbhoy's profile is also being arrested by us
in terror cases. He hails from a very well-to-do and educated Muslim family
in Pune. Preliminary enquiries have revealed that Peerbhoy himself is brilliant
in academics," one officer said.
Peerbhoy finished his schooling from Rosary
School in the Camp area of Pune. He scored 93 percent marks in his 10th standard
exams and 98 percent in his 12th standard. He studied computer engineering
at a Pune college and has been working with the MNC since 2003, the officer
added.
"We have learnt that Peerbhoy's radicalisation
began in late 2006 when Riyaz Bhatkal spotted him at a local mosque. Bhatkal
introduced him to mechanical engineer Asif Bashir Shaikh, arrested for his
role in planting the bombs in Surat, who then indoctrinated Peerbhoy through
sustained brainwashing. He was made to read jihadi literature and see footage
of the Palestine conflict, Iraq, Godhra and the 1993 Mumbai riots. Besides
this, he was also taken to meet several ideologues and hear their speeches,"
said the officer.
In May 2007, Bhatkal provided Rs 70,000 each
to Peerbhoy and computer science graduate Mubin alias Salman Kadar Shaikh
(also arrested) for attending a one-week course in hacking organised in Hyderabad.
According to police, Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal used to hand over material
for the terror e-mails to Asif, who would then make a rough draft along with
Mubin. They would then take this draft to Peerbhoy for final changes as "he
was very well versed in English". The e-mails were sent by hacking into
unsecured WiFi networks that had already been randomly located by the group.
