Author: T N Raghunatha
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 1, 2006
*11 men crossed border to blow up Mumbai
*Mumbai Police crack 7/11 blasts to last detail
After 10-week-long painstaking investigations
into what they initially perceived as "blinder of a case", the Mumbai
Police have ripped the lid off the sinister 7/11 serial blasts' plot masterminded
by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and executed by Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT), with the help of outlawed SIMI and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Though it had been known for some time that
the blast plot was hatched in Pakistan, the Mumbai Police on Saturday came
out with a shocking revelation that Pakistan's State-run Intelligence agency
was the brain behind the dastardly act, which claimed 187 lives and left over
700 others injured. While details of the plan brought out by the investigation
establish Pakistan's role beyond doubt, they also point to Mumbai Police's
efficiency.
(A PTI report from Islamabad said that Pakistan
had termed the findings baseless and fabricated.)
The ISI may have drawn up a diabolical blast
plot to cripple the country's financial capital and unnerve Mumbaikars for
the second time after the March 12, 1993 serial bomb blasts, but it was LeT
which executed the plan, as Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy conceded: "In
a most professional, precise and well-planned manner".
Lashkar-e-Toiba, which had begun its preparation
to execute 7/11 blasts as early as March this year, had chosen Azam Cheema
for the job. It was this senior ISI operative and the highly-placed Bawahalpur-based
LeT commander, who handpicked recruits to carry out the job. "Cheema
trained a majority of those involved in the blasts," Roy said. Police
sources said that it was Cheema, who did most of the planning that went into
the execution of the blasts.
The extent of Pakistan's involvement in the
7/11 blasts can be gauged from the fact that as many as 11 Pakistanis - who
sneaked into India through three international borders - worked hand in hand
with around 20 local operatives. Of the 11 Pakistani terrorists, one died
in the blasts, while another succumbed to bullets in a police encounter. The
remaining nine Pakistanis have either fled the country or are at large within
the country.
Severe flak notwithstanding, they received
from various quarters, including the media, for the "tardy probe"
in the seven powerful explosions that ripped first-class compartments in equal
number of north-Mumbai bound suburban locals on July 11, 2006, the Anti-Terrorist
Squad (ATS) and crime branch sleuths of the Mumbai police cracked the "quite
complicated" case in a relatively short period of one and half months.
"It was a blinder of a case for us. Such
was the precision with which the attackers had carried out the task that we
were left with no clues at any of the blast sites to work upon. It was our
scientific approach and the assistance from the technical team that took us
where we are today. Now we have enough evidence to take the case to a logical
conclusion during the trial," Roy said on Saturday afternoon, he addressed
the media along with State DGP Dr P S Pasricha and ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi.
According to Roy, the ATS chanced upon its
first outside clue, when it came to know a person from Navi Mumbai had been
repeatedly trying to make a telephone call to a place along the Indo-Nepal
border. Following this, the police arrested prime suspect Kamaluddin Ansari
from Madhubani in Bihar. "Before long, we had other suspects in our net.
But, the problem lay in mustering evidence to substantiate our charges against
them, Roy said.
The ATS, which had set up seven separate teams
to investigate the seven blasts and two technical research teams to supplement
their efforts, rounded off investigations on Friday night, with the arrest
of a suspected bomber (Khar blast) Naved from Hyderabad. Earlier on Friday,
the ATS had arrested four blast suspects - three from Mumbai and one from
Kolkata, after prolonged questioning of other 7/11 blast accused already in
the police custody.
Together with the arrests made on Friday,
the ATS has currently in its custody 15 suspects, of whom 12 are "directly
involved". These 12 include four persons who planted explosives in Jogeshwari,
Matunga, Mira Road and Khar blasts.Roy went on to add: "We are looking
out for at least five more suspects, of whom we are close to arresting one.
We can say now, we have solved the case, but we will carry on with our investigations".
According to Roy, the main players behind
the blasts are Faizal Sheikh, Kamaluddin Ansari and Ehtasham Siddiqui. While
Faisal Shaikh is a resident of Mira Road, Kamaluddin Ansari was arrested from
the Madhubani district of Bihar.
Ethesham Siddiqui, is the Maharashtra unit
general secretary of SIMI. It was from Faisal that 26,000 Saudi riyal were
seized and he confessed to the police during the interrogation that during
the last four to five years he had received nearly Rs 60 lakh.
Faizal used to get money from one Saudi Arabia-based
Rizwan Davare, who used to get the money from Lashkar operatives in Pakistan
and channel it to India through hawala routes.
Of the 11 Pakistani who sneaked into India
and took active part in engineering the blasts, two of them came entered from
Nepal on May 25 with the help of Kamaluddin. While five others had smuggled
themselves into India through Bangladesh border, another four entered India
through Gujarat border. On their arrival in India, they stayed at Malad, Borivli-East,
Mumbra, all rented flats, and at Bandra residence of Faisal.
One of the Pakistanis, Salim was killed in
the blast at Khar. "His body was found between Khar and Bandra stations
soon after the blasts. He would also have escaped had he got down from the
train before the blast.
May be he could not do so because of the peak
hour crowd inside the train or he did not know the topography of Mumbai well,"
Roy said. Another Pakistani, Mohammed Ali alias Abu Umed alias Abu Osama,
was killed during an encounter with the sleuths of ATS at Antop Hill. Rest
of them, whom Roy refused to name, may have either fled to Pakistan or "are
still in the country."
Dwelling on the modus operandi used in executing
the blasts, Roy said that one Eshamullah, a Pakistani, had brought nearly
15 to 20 kg of RDX from Pakistan for use in the blasts.
How They Got To The Bottom Of It
# LeT begins preparation to execute 7/11 in
March
# ISI operative Azam Cheema and the highly-placed
Bawahalpur-based LeT commander train local modules
# 11 Pakistanis sneak into India through Gujarat,
Bangladesh & Nepal-Bihar borders.
# Telephone call from Navi Mumbai to a place
along the Indo-Nepal border gives the first clue, leading to a vital arrest
in Madhubani
# One Pak terrorist killed in train blast,
another in police encounter
# Body of Pak terrorist reconstructed &
DNA done. Body still with cops
# Police looking for five more suspects
# Nearly 20 kg of RDX brought from Pakistan
# Local modules visited Pak and get training
several times
# One Pakistani accompanied every local module
to plant bomb in seven trains
# Police deny link between 7/11 and 9/11.
Al-Qaeda had no role in 7/11 blasts
# Fast-track court to try 7/11 accused
The Deadly 15
# Faisal-Ata-ur-Rehman Shaikh (bomber-Jogeshwari)
# Mohammed Kamaluddin Ansari (bomber-Matunga)
# Etesham Siddqui (bomber -Mira Road)
# Naved (bomber -Khar)
# Khaleel Ahmead Shaikh
# Maulana Mumtaz
# Mujjamil Ata-ur-Rehman Shaikh
# Tanvir Ahmed Ansari
# Jamir Chaviwala
# Sohail Shaikh
# Akmal Hashmi
# Mohammed Shafi
# Mohammed Shaikh
# Abdul Wahiuddin
# Moahmmed Majid