Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 18, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=86077
Introduction: Suspect held in Karnataka says
he was asked to plan explosions
In course of their investigation into the
terrorist attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Bangalore
police have stumbled upon a wider conspiracy to spread terror in the south.
They claimed to have unearthed a plot to bomb the Kaiga Nuclear Plant, Almatti
Dam and the Sharavathy power transmission lines in Karnataka.
Based on information provided by alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba
operative Abdul Rehman, the first suspect arrested in connection with the
IISc case, the police today placed under arrest a second suspect, Habeeb alias
Mehaboob Ibrahim alias Chopdar, 35, a resident of Bagalkot in north Karnataka.
Interrogation of Habeeb revealed that he was, along with others-on the instructions
of Rehman-planning blasts at the three sites in Karnataka, Bangalore Police
Commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh said today.
The police claimed to have found gelatine
sticks at the residence of Habeeb, a ''fabrication mechanic'' described as
an important LeT activist in Karnataka.
The police, however, said they were yet to
find any link between Habeeb and the attack on IISc by a gunman wielding an
AK-56 on December 28 that left a retired IIT, Delhi professor dead. Habeeb
is reported to have worked in Saudi Arabia from 1993 to 2001 and met Rehman
in that country.
The interrogation of Rehman and Habeeb has
''revealed a LeT-backed conspiracy to indulge in violent activities by organising
attacks on vital installations, places of economic and national importance,
and by disrupting communal harmony,'' the Police Commissioner said. A case
of conspiracy, waging a war on the government of India, spreading communal
violence and using explosives and firearms has now been filed against Rehman
and Habeeb. Rehman, already booked in the IISc attack case, was today remanded
in judicial custody.
Sources said Rehman's interrogation had provided
links to the IISc attack. The Nalgonda native functioned as a lieutenant to
LeT's Abu Hamsa, alias Abdul Bari, originally from Hyderabad but currently
controlling south Indian LeT operations from Saudi Arabia. Hamsa, wanted in
a Hyderabad bomb blast case helped found a south Indian extremist group, the
Muslim Defence Force, in 2002. ''Rehman has been raising funds, recruiting
people, organising their training in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and procuring
weapons and explosives for the LeT network in India,'' Singh said. Police
said Rehman himself had been trained in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
On LeT's Karnataka map: Bijapur , Gulbarga,
Udupi, Kolar
* In each state, a 'key operative' sends men
to Rehman, who has operational contacts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh, Chennai and Uttar Pradesh
* Recruits from Bijapur, Gulbarga, Udupi,
Mangalore, Kolar and Ramnagar districts of the state
* Recruits sent to Kolkata from where they
go to Bangladesh to train in handling weapons, also to handle police interrogation
* They are later sent to Balochistan for intensive
training after which they return to their native states and plan attacks
