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Author: Maneka Rao
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 26, 2006
Introduction: Phone records indicate Lashkar links
If this month's arrest of 11 suspected terrorists by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) with a huge cache of arms and ammunition firmly establishes the clear and present danger of Mumbai becoming a destination of terror, the trail actually began with the arrest of a former Haj House peon and three others in January.
When Imam Ghulam Hussain Yahya, Khursheed Ahmed, Ashrad Ahmed Badru and Haji Ramzan were arrested, the police recovered arms, detonators and electronic devices from them.
They also suspected that an "invisible hand" from Kashmir seemed to have been guiding them to carry out an operation-details of which are still a mystery.
But a 91-page transcript of telephone conversations -it has been filed in the Mazgaon court along with the chargesheet-indicates that a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander was in direct contact with Yahya and Ahmed, giving them directions about the men who need to be harboured in Mumbai.
The transcripts, a copy of which is with Newsline, are of intercepted conversations made between December 30, 2005 and January 8, 2006 and the ATS has translated selected portions from Kashmiri to Hindi.
The transcript reveals that Ahmed was in Mumbai since December 25 and was waiting for Badru and Ramzan to join him-they both did on January 2 and 4 respectively. Badru was in touch with Yahya, who is referred to as the ''mulla''.
Yahya was evidently in charge of distributing funds that were delivered to him. He was also in-charge of arranging the stay of those arrested-the intercepts of January 3 and 5 indicate he had booked room no 207 in Zam Zam Hotel in Dongri and another room in a Musafirkhana hotel.
''We attached the transcripts to the chargesheet to show the court that the four accused were in touch with each other and were part of the same association involved in unlawful activity. There was a hue and cry after the mulla's arrest and these conversations clearly establish his link,'' said Sunil Deshmukh, senior police inspector, ATS.
According to the transcripts, since December 29, Ahmed says he's irritated about the tight police presence and feels unnecessarily ''trapped'' in Mumbai. He also keeps referring to Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
According to a senior ATS official: ''Ahmed had plans to go to Bihar and cross the border from Nepal. He wanted to avoid Kashmir as it was snowing heavily.''
Ahmed says he's waiting for a ''signal'' and the people who are supposed to be sent to Mumbai. On 4 January, he talks of there being ''a lot of work'' to do in the next two days and that he would be ''free'' on January 6.
On January 6, the LeT commander-the ATS believes he is Saluiddin-calls the mulla and warns him that some people have been caught. Two days later, Ahmed and the two others were arrested by the ATS outside Hotel Sagar near Bombay Central. Yahya was arrested on January 13.
According to the ATS, the man who was supposed to collect the devices from Ahmed and the others is the missing link in the puzzle. Whether he was supposed to deliver it somewhere or use it in Mumbai isn't clear.
''We seized detonators, timers and electronic devices. They only needed RDX to create an explosive device. We are yet to know who was harbouring the RDX and how he was supposed to use it,'' said a senior ATS official.
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