Author: George Iype
in Bangalore
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: August 25, 2000
After two months of investigation
into the Deendar Anjuman's activities, after it was accused of having set
off a series of bomb blasts in places of worship in Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh, police officials have stumbled on evidence that some Indian defence
officials were acting as its links to the ISI.
Senior intelligence officials
probing the Anjuman-ISI links disclosed that some of the sect's high profile
and rich members had established contacts with key Indian defence officials
in New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad over the years. However, the
officials refused to divulge the details and nature of the evidence linking
Anjuman with defence personnel.
"Our evidence suggests
that Anjuman members, in connivance with some defence officials, passed
on sensitive documents containing information regarding the Indian defence
forces and the Defence Research and Development Organisation, to Pakistan
in return for money," an intelligence officer in Bangalore told rediff.com.
He said e-mail has been
"a frequent mode of communication" between the Anjuman members and the
ISI. "We have also unearthed a number of CD-ROMs from Anjuman members
that contain details of Indian Air Force stores, strike aircraft, the movement
of defence forces and key projects of the DRDO," the official said.
Sources said a number
of defence officials are being questioned and probed to establish whether
they aided the Anjuman in forwarding secret defence information to Pakistani
agencies. The intelligence officials are said to be apprising Home
Minister L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes of the probe
details on a daily basis.
Advani has already announced
in Parliament that the government is contemplating strict action against
the Anjuman sect -- including a ban -- for carrying out 13 bombings in
churches from May 21 to July 9 in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa.
Intelligence agencies
recently arrested an Indian Air Force officer, Syed Hasan-ur-Zaman, from
New Delhi and two of his brothers -- Syed Khaliq Ur Zaman and Syed Geelani
Ur Zaman -- from Nuzvid in Andhra Pradesh for masterminding the bomb blasts
in churches.
Officials said the Zaman
brothers have been bribing some defence officials in Bangalore, Hyderabad
and New Delhi and collecting secret information. The Zaman brothers
have also been in constant touch with the Anjuman's Pakistan-based spiritual
head, Zia-ul-Hassan, who last year floated a militant outfit named Jamat-e-Hizbul
Mujahideen in Peshawar.
The Zaman brothers have
been passing on sensitive information on Indian defence projects to Zia-ul-Hassan,
who forwarded it to the Pakistani government and the ISI. In return,
Hassan is said to have pumped in a huge amount of money through the hawala
route to the Zaman brothers.
"The Zaman brothers and
their Pakistani contacts generally operated from Nuzvid to ensure complete
secrecy of their anti-India operations," an official said. It was
in Nuzvid that even the conspiracy to set off bomb blasts in places of
worship across south India was hatched by the Anjuman members.
Hassan and his son Zahid
Pasha visited India frequently under various aliases and met the Zaman
brothers to execute what Anjuman said was "the ISI's plans to prepare India
for Jihad" by creating hatred among the various religious communities and
disrupting the communication system in India.
A number of Anjuman members
who worked in public sector enterprises also aided the deadly plan.
While Abdul Rehman Sait, an employee with Bharat Earth Movers Limited was
the chief coordinator for the bomb blasts in Karnataka, another employee
with the Telecom Department in Hyderabad acted as the strategic link for
the Anjuman's Andhra Pradesh operations.
Intelligence sources
said with their defence connections, the Zaman brothers were experts in
procuring explosives and fabricating them into time-activated devices.
Bombs and explosives were assembled at the Zaman household in Nuzvid.
In the last two months,
the police in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have arrested 39 Anjuman activists
who are said to have acted as ISI agents and planned the bomb blasts in
churches.
The intelligence teams
that are probing the Anjuman's links with Indian defence officials are
expected to arrest some of the officials in the near future.
As further details of
the murky dealings of the Sufi sect come to the fore, the Central government
has set up special intelligence cells in Bangalore and Hyderabad to specially
deal with the increasing operations of the ISI in the south Indian states.
