Azam Ghouri: Andhra's Kargil connection
Shireen in Hyderabad
Rediff on Net
June 12, 1999.
Title: Azam Ghouri: Andhra's Kargil connection
Author: Shireen in Hyderabad
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: June 12, 1999.
The Andhra Pradesh police and central intelligence agencies are
keeping a close watch on the activities of several fundamentalist
organisations in the state in the wake of the operations in Kargil .
The intelligence agencies are, however, not too sure about the report
that the intruders in Kargil include Azam Ghouri, a top-ranking leader
of Lashkar-e-Toiba, who hails from Warangal district.
Ghouri, originally from Hanmajipet in Warangal, left the outlawed
People's War Group almost a decade ago after one of his hands was
injured in a grenade attack.
Later, he moved to Bombay and subsequently crossed over to Pakistan to
join the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
He is reported to have obtained training in the use of explosives from
the Taliban militia in Afghanistan.
During the two decades of his militant activities, Ghouri is suspected
of involvement in as many as 60 major crimes.
The list is exhaustive.
On August 12, 1993, some miscreants planted bombs with timer devices
in the vicinity of Humayun Nagar and Abids police stations in
Hyderabad at the behest of Ghouri.
The bombs exploded causing damage to the compound wall of Humayun
Nagar police station and injuring the watchman of a shop adjacent to
Abids police station.
In another incident on September 12, 1993, a powerful bomb explosion
rocked the central reservations complex of Secunderabad railway
station, killing two railway officials and seriously injuring another.
On October 22, 1993, a bomb exploded at an educational institute at
Nampally, killing a person on the spot and causing injuries to two
others.
Similarly, a bomb exploded in the compartment of the Andhra Pradesh
Express near Moula Ali on December 6, 1993, killing two persons and
injuring 14 others.
All the above incidents are believed to be the handiwork of Ghouri.
The Hyderabad City Police also found links between Ghouri and ISI
activists arrested in the city.
On November 13, 1993, Hyderabad City police arrested four persons and
recovered a revolver, hand grenades, explosive materials, documents
and cash from their possession.
All four allegedly had links with both Ghouri and ISI and were
planning subversive activities in the city.
Again, on January 22, 1995, the Hyderabad City Police arrested two
city-based youth at Bangalore in Karnataka. They were imparted
training in Islamabad by the ISI to undertake disruptive activities in
India.
In yet another breakthrough in July 1998, the city police unearthed an
ISI plot when they arrested three agents and 13 of their supporters
and seized four pistols, 60 cartridges, 18 kilograms of RDX, three VHF
man-pack sets and a remote control exploding device from their
possession.
Three more persons were arrested in a pre-emptive raid in September
1998. The Pakistani agents, Mohammed Saleem Junaid of Lashkar-e-Toiba,
Mohammed Shafiq and Farooq Ahmed, had planned to organise serial bomb
blasts in Hyderabad on Ganesh Chathurthi day.
Their interrogation indicated that they were in close touch with
Ghouri. The intelligence agencies also suspected that Ghouri had
visited Nizamabad clandestinely and held consultations with the PWG.
Ghouri is also said to have tried to spread his operations to Tamil
Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
The activities of the ISI came to the notice of the Andhra Pradesh
police almost seven years ago.
It was on November 29, 1992 that three brothers of a family hailing
from Sangareddy in Medak district gunned down an additional
superintendent of police Krishna Prasad and his gunman Venkateswara
Rao in a shoot-out at Brindavan colony in the city.
The brothers, Najeeb Ahmed, Laiq Ahmed and Habeeb Ahmed, were
associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen. After a brief stint in Kashmir
in 1992, Mujeeb Ahmed returned to Hyderabad and sought to recruit
vulnerable youth and organise subversive activities in the state
capital.
After the shoot-out incident, Laiq Ahmed was killed in an encounter
with the police. Najeeb Ahmed, however, is still absconding.
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