Author: Vishwa Mohan & Pradeep Thakur
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 17, 2008
Sleuths Sift Through 5 SIM Cards Details To
Track Ultras
Had it not been for 'human intelligence' (the
most basic aspect of intelligence gathering mechanism) at work, the Ahmedabad-Surat
terror cases would not have been solved. It was through this painstaking method
of keeping an eye on unusual details-unlike technical intelligence using interception-that
the police managed to track down the mastermind and his entire group by tracing
their mobile phones.
Five prepaid mobile cards-all purchased 15
days before the blasts from the same shop in Ahmedabad-getting only incoming
calls from different PCOs before suddenly being switched off on the day of
the Ahmedabad serial blasts (July 26) presented a vital clue to the cops.
Alerted by a source, the sleuths sifted through details to reach the perpetrators
who had taken care not to leave clues behind-either in Ahmedabad or Surat
in July, Jaipur in May or even in the UP serial blasts (Faizabad, Lucknow
and Varanasi) in November last year. Gujarat DGP P C Pande, while giving details
of the success story in Ahmedabad on Saturday, rightly mentioned the role
of "human intelligence" which helped the cops in cracking the case.
The technological intelligence provided on
the basis of the tip-off from their source helped the police complete the
loop. Experts who hold techint to be crucial in an age where terrorists are
increasingly using the latest in technology too have warned against excessive
reliance on it to the exclusion of the task of developing and keeping sources.
Investigations into the Hyderbad Mecca mosque
blast case remain at a dead-end despite cops having the mobile phone and SIM
card-used in the unexploded bomb-in their possession. The phone could take
them only to the vendors from whom the terrorists had, using fictitious details
and photographs, procured the SIM and handsets. Details of calls made from
the phone prior to the blasts also could not throw any clue.
Officials in the investigating agencies admit
that there is no substitute for 'human intelligence' during a probe. The Ahmedabad
case showed how effective it can be, giving credence to the experts' repeated
pleas of strengthening "beat policing"-the old-fashioned way of
keeping details on the unusual people as well as activities -in a mohalla/locality.
Interestingly, the Ahmedabad case also showed
how a mundane and irritating exercise - traffic checking - can yield leads
for investigation into major terrorist strikes. It was the arrest of one SIMI
activist, Riyazuddin Nasir at Honnali in Davangere district of Karnataka,
during a routine check by cops in Karnataka, which landed the cops a cache
of information on the network of terrorists. Nasir, who had his terrorist
training in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), was an active
member of SIMI. His father, Moulana Naseruddin, who was earlier arrested by
the Gujarat Police, has been in a Gujarat jail for his involvement in other
terror-related cases.
