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Lashkar-e-Toiba activist arrested in the red fort case
Sixteen months ago Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET)'s Ashfaq Ahmed, 28, arrived in India. His mission: jehad. Two days after his arrest for organising the Red Fort killings, he spoke to Principal Correspondent Sayantan Chakravarty.
Q.: Did the police shoot a genuine
militant or an innocent Indian?
A.: Abu Shamaal, the man shot down,
was very much a Lashkar militant. He's from Lahore and entered Delhi on
December 19.
Q.: What kind of training did you
receive for the operation at Red Fort?
A.: I was funded to the tune of
Rs 6 lakh. I received my training in arms at Muzaffarabad (PoK). I underwent
a 21-day Dora-e-Am at the Abdullah Bin Masood camp in December 1998. From
January 1999 I went through the Dora-e-Khas for 90 days.
Q.: What were you told at camps?
A.: We were motivated for jehad.
We heard religious speeches.
Q.: Why did they select you for
the Delhi operation?
A.: Abu Bilal, my area commander
in Srinagar, found me the most articulate and educated in the group sent
to India. I am a graduate in civics and English from Abbotabad in NWFP.
Q.: What was your role in Delhi?
A.: I was to act as the facilitator
for those sent by the let. I rented the room at Batla House for the others,
including Shamaal.
Q.: You were told in Pakistan that
Muslims in India are tortured, persecuted. Has your impression changed?
A.: The situation is better than
what we had been told.
Q.: Is Lashkar still recruiting?
A.: When I came to India in August
1998 there were around 1,750 men in its ranks. When Shamaal came in December,
it had gone up to 2,250.
Q.: Why did you target Red Fort?
A.: It is the symbol of free India,
where the tricolour was first unfurled. The Red Fort is also something
that the army guards. We wanted to attack a symbol like this.
Q.: What were your plans in India?
A.: Lashkar wanted me to create
bases in Jammu or Lucknow. I had other plans though.
Q.: Like?
A.: I thought I would start my
own general store in Delhi and settle down.
Q.: And never go back?
A.: Well, if I ditched Lashkar
there was no way I could return to Pakistan to my family.
Q.: You left a normal life for the
gun. Motivation was the key.
A.: On October 17, 1997, Abdul
Wahid, a priest in Abbotabad, delivered a fiery speech asking the youth
to join the jehad for a free Kashmir. That was when I decided to join the
jehad.
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