Author: Shishir Gupta
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 01, 2010
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/isi-let-getting-indian-jihadis-together-in-karachi-for-attack/573878/
The ISI has put together a team of Indian
jihadis in Karachi, and is waiting to launch them into the country on a terrorist
project, alleged terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Mohammad Amjad
Khwaja have told their interrogators.
Headley was arrested by the FBI in Chicago
in October last year, and is accused of recceing Mumbai and other Indian cities
for the Lashkar-e-Toiba as part of the preparations for 26/11. Khwaja, belonging
to the Harkat-ul Jihad-i Islami, was arrested on January 18, and is being
held in Hyderabad.
Headley has described the "Karachi project"
to FBI interrogators, details of which have been shared with New Delhi, sources
said. He is believed to have said that both the ISI and the Lashkar have been
training Indian nationals in terrorist activities, and using them for anti-India
"projects" from time to time.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has
also been able to unearth significant details about Headley's movements in
Pakistan through his e-mail correspondence. Contents of his Gmail account
were shared with New Delhi following an official request to Google.
Details of Headley's movements in and out
of India, reported in The Indian Express last Thursday, show that he flew
into Mumbai from Karachi and returned to the same city twice over the last
three years - once in late 2006, and then again in April 2008.
Evidence of the ISI-Lashkar Karachi project
has also come independently from HuJI man Khwaja, who was picked up by Chennai
Police on his return from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport. Top sources
said Khwaja has told his interrogators that a large number of highly-indoctrinated
jihadi Indian nationals have been housed in the Pakistani port city.
Khwaja is understood to have revealed that
he met alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists Amir Raza Khan and Riyaz Bhatkal
in Karachi, both of whom are staying in the city's Defence enclave, probably
under the ISI's protection.
Khwaja, who visited Mecca and Jeddah in Saudi
Arabia before he was arrested, is believed to have confessed to planning the
October 2005 attack on the STF office in Hyderabad, but has been silent on
his suspected role in the Mecca Masjid and Gokul Chat blasts in 2007.
Khwaja is learnt to have provided details
of HuJI operations in Bangladesh, and the outfit's coordination with Lashkar
leaders based in Manshera and Muridke in Pakistan. The Hyderabad Police are
expected to approach the court for permission to carry out a narco test on
him shortly.
Meanwhile, a team of officers from Bangalore
are also expected to interrogate Khwaja in connection with his revelations
on Riaz Bhatkal, who, along with his brother Iqbal, are believed to have joined
hands with hardline elements from the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)
to carry out the bombings attributed to the Indian Mujahideen between 2006
and 2008. Much of the planning and preparation for these attacks took place
at the port town of Bhatkal near Mangalore.
Khwaja is of interest to the Karnataka Police
also on account of his alleged interaction with Amir Raza Khan, the gangster-turned-jihadi
who is believed to have played a crucial supporting role in Indian Mujahideen
operations.
