Author: Ruhi Khan
Publication: Mumbai Mirror
Date: July 16, 2006
Introduction: Experts find startling similarities
between Dr Jalees Shakeel Ansari's plans for the 1993 serial train blasts
and the one earlier this week
History repeats itself. With no clues on Tuesday's
train bombings, senior police officials in the ATS and city police believe
that it is imperative to study the motivation and modus operandi of India's
very first train bomber-a Mumbai doctor who, in 1993, first planted several
bombs on trains in India.
The Bomb Mastermind
Dr Jalees Shakeel Ansari has gone down in history books as the new breed of
Indian terrorists. The serial blasts of March 1993 were executed by Muslim
youths having a criminal record and underworld links, but the blasts since
then have been the work of highly-qualified men over a wide spectrum of fields
including medicine and engineering.
Ansari, a young doctor who worked in a government
run hospital and lived in a seedy chawl in a Muslim-dominated area called
Mominpura, near Byculla, was remembered by neighbours as a generous doctor
who opened a free clinic to treat-the poor; a progressive tutor who oft, in
his spare time, would give free English tuitions to his mohalla kids and a
father who stressed that education was the primary goal of his children.
Originally from Malegaon near Nashik, Ansari
belongs to the traditionalist Salafist sect of the Ahl-e-Hadees, which rejects
conservative Islam and seeks a return to the puritan ways of the early days
of Islam.
But somewhere behind this pious, generous
and progressive profile of a Mumbai government medical doctor was the alleged
portrait of a vicious and brainwashed radical.
Criminal Agenda
What drove Ansari to engage in terrorism? It was not money, or a desire for
materialistic comfort that drove him to kill civilians. According to senior
police officials, Ansari called his terrorist act a revenge for the communal
hatred and bigotry against Muslims.
After the 1984 Bhagalpur riots, Ansari formed
a militant group with 12 others called Crush India Force-which marked the
foray into home-grown jehadis. In 1993, he laid the foundation of his mission
in the Ahl-e-Hadees mosque along with Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)
in Mominpura. His mission was to plant low-intensity bombs in trains, buses
and other public places to cause panic and fear in order to avenge what he
believed to be state atrocity against Muslims.
"If the government cannot protect Muslims,
we will do so ourselves," Ansari once told interrogators. Ansari, in
his confession to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said, "...we
should pressurise the government and the majority Hindu community by whatever
means, even if it means destruction of life and property to any extent...
we want to terrorise them and the government particularly, the police..."
He was later convicted in the blast case and is now serving out his life imprisonment
term in Ajmer jail.
Cause-Effect Chronology
Among the bomb explosions he masterminded are those on local trains and railway
stations in Mumbai in 1989-1990 and then five bombs on trains including the
Rajdhani Express, A P Express and Flying Ranee, in 1993. Ansari, for instance,
was scheduled to carry out another series on January 26, 1994, but was arrested
by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Ansari, an expert at fashioning bombs, was
mentor to several accused in various bomb blasts. The 2002 blasts outside
Ghatkopar station, Vile Parle station, Mumbai Central station, in a train
at Mulund station and in BEST buses were also thought to be the handiwork
of Ansari's men. Police noticed that Dr Ansari's vengeance could be ignited
by riots anywhere-Moradabad, Malegaon or Bhagalpur, but his terrorist activities
would nevertheless be in cities like Mumbai and spread all over India.
Hence, the 2002 blasts in Mumbai were linked
to the Gujarat riots where several Muslims were murdered. After the Gujarat
riots, some members of the Crush India Force came together and planned the
blasts with the help of former SIMI members led by Saquib Nachan and Bashir.
Intelligence sources say that Ansari's men
are part of several sleeper cells in the city. After nine years of lying low,
they triggered the 2002 blasts and could also be behind the 7/11 serial train
blasts, intelligence agencies suspect.
Tuesday's train bombings that allegedly targeted
Gujarati businessmen could also be a fallout of the Gujarat riots. The train
bombers skill and target precision point towards Ansari's ideology, and the
modus operandi seems to incorporate his methodology, said an IPS officer.
Network of Suspects, Supporters and Links
Both the prime suspects in the 7/11 tragedy-Lashkar-e-Toiba and SIMI-have
been linked to Ansari's outfit. As early as the late 1980s, when militancy
had just gained momentum in Jammu and Kashmir, Ansari had formed links with
the Hizbul Mujahideen. Ansari's financial supporter, Tahir Yusuf Shaikh, had
links with Hizbul's offshoot Lashkar-e-Toiba to carry out the 2002 blasts.
A senior officer of the crime branch said
investigators have uncovered a 'cartel' of blast conspirators who have exploited
the "hurt sentiments" of Muslim youths from across India.
He also named Tahir Yusuf Shaikh, who is now
settled in Kuwait, as the one who provided financial support to Ansari's mission.
Police have found that Shaikh used his links with Hizbul's offshoot Lashkar-e-Toiba
to carry out the recent blasts. Since he has spent some time in the Middle
East, he is likely also to have revived contacts with his financial supporters
in the Gulf.
A senior officer of the crime branch said
investigators have uncovered a 'cartel' of blast conspirators who have exploited
the "hurt sentiments" of Muslim youths from across India.
Using principles of modern terrorism, this
cartel works in the shadows on a need-to-know basis, the officer said. The
cartel has two main arteries: the Shariah Cell and the Strategy Cell.
The Shariah Cell has leaders and mullahs in
drapes and long beard who misinterpret the Quran and the hadith to brainwash
gullible Muslim youths into jihad. The Strategy cell equips them with the
necessary technological and strategic know-how to carry out a terrorist attack.
Intelligence sources believe that it is possible
that Ansari's group of fanatics has regrouped with the remnants of SIMI to
form new modules that have engineered the highly synchronised attacks of 7/11
and have again moved into the shadows.