Author: Mumbai Mirror Bureau
Publication: Mumbai Mirror
Date: July 12, 2006
Intelligence agencies say he recruited over
a thousand people from UP in the past six months
The central intelligence agencies and the
Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai police believe a politician with considerable
following among the minorities in Mumbai may have played a crucial role in
Tuesday's serial blasts.
The blasts, a senior ATS officer said, seemed
to be a reprisal for the death of two members of a minority community in police
firing in Bhiwandi last week.
The politician, whom the ATS sleuths are likely
to call for questioning soon, had played a key role in fomenting trouble in
the aftermath of the Bhiwandi firing incident.
According to the information available with
ATS, this politician recruited over a thousand people from Uttar Pradesh in
the past six months. The recruits, an ATS officer said, are now part of several
well-knit terrorist sleeper cells in Mumbai. The ATS had held two back-to-back
meetings with the state and central intelligence agencies after the trouble
in Bhiwandi. The ATS for the past several months has also been tracking the
flow of funds to this Mumbai politician from mysterious sources in the Gulf.
"A sleeper cell can be activated in as
short a notice as 24 hours. As per the intelligence collected so far, the
serial blasts of Tuesday might be a reaction to what happened in Bhiwandi
last week," said a senior IB official in Mumbai.
Just last month, the ATS had busted a couple
of sleeper cells and arrested 13 men from Malegaon and Aurangabad with RDX
and guns.
According to an officer of the Inspector General
rank, Tuesday's blasts could be the handiwork of some local groups who knew
about the important role the Western line plays in keeping the city on the
move.
The officer added that the people who executed
the blasts appeared to have good understanding of the functioning of the local
train network and the train time tables. "The fact they picked the evening
rush hour also indicates local knowledge," he said.
