Author: Mr. Ranjit Khome
Publications: The Times of India
Date: June 18, 2001
The interrogation of two Kashmiri
militants arrested by the Delhi police on May 21 has revealed a plot to
blow up the police commissioner's office here. The police had also seized
some explosives from them.
During interrogation, the militants
revealed that Gurpreet Singh alias Mikki (24), a Chhota Shakeel gangster
wanted for the murder of several Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai, had been
assigned the task of carrying out the blasts planned by the Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Shakeel, intelligence sources said.
Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports
revealed that Shakeel had entrusted to young recruits the responsibility
of supplying explosives to Mikki, who was in Mumbai then. This decision
seems to have cost Shakeel dear since the IB stumbled upon one of these
boys in Delhi during a routine surveillance. The IB tip-off then led to
the arrest of Gurvinder Singh Bhullar, Mohammed Asgar and Abdul Jabbar
of the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front. This was the first time that Shakeel's
link with militants was formally established.
Mikki, who used to live in Lelewadi
in Andheri, is a cousin of Gurvinder. Shakeel had paid Gurvinder to deliver
by train the now-seized plastic explosive and radio-based detonators to
Mikki, who was to cause the blast.
The city police, till the arrests
in Delhi, had no clue about Mikki's links with militants. They wanted him
only for the murder of Sena leaders Salim Badgujar in Nagpada on March
18, 1998, Mahadev Khandekar in Borivli on April 15, 1999, Vivek Kelkar
in the MIDC area in December 1999, Shivaji Chavan in Goregaon on April
19, 2000, and Ramakant Hadkar on September 24, 2000.
Incidentally, Mikki is also wanted
for the murder of Mohammed Rehman, a pan shop owner, whom he shot on April
4, 2000, in what was a case of mistaken identity. The police had arrested
Mohammed Abdul in the Kelkar murder case and Asif Mansoori in the Badgujar
murder case who confirmed Mikki's role but gave no clue about his militant
links. Mikki is now believed to be shuttling between India and South Africa.
Security at the office of the commissioner
of police has been beefed up following this development.
