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Did he inspire 7/11?

Did he inspire 7/11?

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.


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