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Author:
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 18, 2006
Introduction: Kamal Ansari, 33, a resident of Madhubani district in Bihar, was the first man to be arrested in the 7/11 case. According to his confession, he was sent to Pakistan on the pretext of raising money for Indian madrassas. However, on crossing the Wagah border, he was taken to a camp run by the LeT. He was finally arrested from his village after the serial train blasts in Mumbai
My father, Mohammed Vakil Ansari, used to work at the Kanpur ordnance factory. After retirement, he used to only get a monthly pension of Rs 100, and so my mother was forced to work as a beedi maker, while my father made umbrellas.
I managed to study up to class 7, after which I was forced to learn tailoring as my family was very poor. In 1989, I left for Delhi, where I worked as a tailor for various "its. In 2000, I went to my village to work for the RJD party during the Vidhan Sabha elections. During a rally, one Ibrahim Rayeen asked me to go to Kathmandu to meet Hafiz Zubair, who was known to me as he used to live in the neighbouring village. On reaching Kathmandu, Zubair told me to go to Pakistan to raise funds for madrassas. I was promised Rs 50,000 to do the job. They also gave me a passport and a Pakistani visa.
Along with a few others, I went to Pakistan via the Wagah border, after showing the authorities my passport and other relevant documents. Then we took a bus to Lahore, from where I called up the Lashkare-Taiba commander, Aslam.
Aslam met us at a three-storeyed building and introduced me to one Khaleed Saifulla, who was also an LeT man. Both Saifulla and I then left for Muzaffarabad. There, we climbed up a hill on foot for nearly 90 minutes, until we came up to a training camp called 'Ummool Koda'. There were around 150 men being trained there. One person called Amir was in-charge of this camp.
We were given physical training there and shown how to use weapons like AK-47s and explosives. Before coming back to India, an LeT member took my photograph along with the other boys holding weapons in their hands. On coming back to India, I confronted Zubair and asked him why he had lied and sent me to a terrorist camp. He told me to remain quiet, saying they had my photo which could get me into trouble later. After that I was given three e-mail addresses and told to stay in touch with him and certain others who would keep giving me specific instructions from time to time. I was also told that they would pay me good money for this.
In May 2006, a contact of Zubair gave me some RDX wrapped in a plastic bag. With this I was told to go to Jogeshwari in Mumbai, where certain Pakistani nationals were to meet me at a designated place. On July 11, I was told to visit Mira Road. From there we went to Bandra, to the house of one Faizal. There were already 8 to 10 men there and seven rexine bags were distributed among us. They contained the bombs to be used for the blasts.
I and three others, including a Pakistani national called Salim, were told to leave a bag in a fast local train leaving Churchgate. We were told to get off at Dadar railway station. However, Salim could not get down due to the rush and was eventually killed in the blast.
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