Author: Omer Farooq
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 29, 2005
Mujeeb Ahmad, who was arrested by the Hyderabad
Police over charges of links with Kashmir-based terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen
on Tuesday, had visited Kashmir and Delhi as part of his clandestine activities
to form a terrorist group comprising local youth and to procure weapons.
This has come to light during the preliminary
questioning of Mujib by the police.
The police have also uncovered that Mujeeb
had managed to bring in at least Rs 10 lakh from his sources in Kashmir and
across the border to finance his activities and support the youth who had
joined him. The sources said that he had assured his handlers in Kashmir that
he commanded a good number of followers and they were willing to "act"
whenever they were asked to.
The ease with which he was able to renew his
contacts among the Kashmiri terrorist organisations as well their backers
in Pakistan soon after coming out of Chiralapally jail in August last year,
has surprised the officials.
Though police commissioner AK Mohanthy said
that the police were keeping an eye on his activities, it is obvious that
his visits to Kashmir and Delhi remained hidden from the eyes of the police.
The police sprung to action only after it received an alarming alert from
the Rajasthan counterpart that Mujeeb was to receive a major arms consignment
from Kashmir, which was fortunately seized near Ajmer from Shabbir Ahmad alias
Ghulam Rasool.
The Hyderabad Police has also taken into custody
Mohammed Jahangir, the brother-in-law of Mujeeb, and recovered a sim card
and a cheque of Rs 3 lakh. The cheque was issued by one Pappu, a dealer in
marble stones, based in the LB Nagar area of Hyderabad. The police is now
looking for Pappu.
However, the more crucial task before the
police is to unearth the entire module created by Mujeeb and trace and unearth
all the members of this gang.
The officials say that making him talk will
be difficult as he is a hard nut to crack. But a beginning has already been
made. Mohanthy said that he has admitted to his links with the arms consignment,
which was coming to Hyderabad. But the police officials are sure that he is
sitting on a goldmine of information about terrorist activities and plans.
Meanwhile, the revelation that he was deeply
involved in anti-national activities after his release, has become a major
embarrassment for the State Government as Mujeeb was released on last year's
Independence Day, after the remission of his sentence. Now questions are being
raised about the rationale of this decision as Mujeeb was convicted under
TADA in 1992. At the time, he was found having links with the Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front and was indulging in extortion of money. The police had recovered
an AK-47 from him at the time, which was supplied by Kashmiri militants. During
the search of his house by the police, a shootout took place and additional
SP Krishna Prasad and his bodyguard were killed.
Later, Mujeeb's younger brother Laeeq Ahmad
was killed in an encounter while his two younger sisters and mother were also
arrested by the police. It has come as a shock to the people that even after
undergoing such a long imprisonment and causing sufferings to his entire family,
Mujeeb resumed his anti-national activities and re-established the contacts
with the Kashmiri militants.
