Author: Neeraj Chauhan
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 14, 2011
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Pak-woman-spy-had-Modi-on-%20%20terror-radar/articleshow/11100144.cms
The Pakistani woman spy and her companion
nabbed on Monday were no small operatives. They were pushed into India from
ISI's launch pads in Nepal to attack Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi
and other terror targets in the state.
Both jihadis, Soofia Kanwal and her accomplice
Imran, were trained to trigger blasts and were being remote-controlled by
their masters in Pakistan. These startling facts came to the fore during their
interrogation by Special Cell sleuths.
Soofia and Imran, both from Karachi, had
also been assigned to recce Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad and the Cantonment
areas in Agra and Delhi, said a police officer.
"They have not revealed details of their
plan to kill Modi. We are investigating whether Lashkar, Indian Mujahideen
or Jaish were providing them logistics," said a police officer. Delhi
Police has alerted Gujarat Police about the threat to Modi.
Police are also questioning spies about the
training programmes they underwent in Pakistan. Both were well-versed in techniques
used by different terror organisations.
Sleuths have also stumbled upon fresh evidence
on how Indian Mujahideen terrorists were keeping in touch. IM's India chief
Siddi Bappa alias Shahrukh had instructed all module members to use different
SIM cards for calling each other and he himself carried several phones with
different connections, said a sleuth.
In fact, Special Cell has reportedly recovered
30 SIM cards of different operators and different states from those arrested.
"Indian Mujahideen members had procured all SIM cards on the basis of
fake documents," he said.
"They would keep changing numbers every
two weeks to evade police. Shahrukh had reportedly given different numbers
to each member. He would not talk to Ajmal on Irshad's number or to Qateel
on Farooq's number. Members also did not know about the different numbers
of different modules," said a senior police officer.
Police said the recovered SIM cards would
help them track down their visits to different states.
The Special Cell has sent all arms, ammunition
and explosives recovered from the terror factory at Meer Vihar for forensic
tests. Officials said the explosives included RDX and nitrate-based chemicals.
Police also suspect that Shahrukh may have created more bases like Meer Vihar
for hiding explosives. Cops have also found some bank accounts which were
being used by arrested terrorists, which they suspect were source of transfers
of money used for operations.