Author: Pramod Kumar Singh
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 15, 2006
Conspirators used e-mails, hid behind women
---- The men who planted explosives on Mumbai's train were heavily armed and
numbered nearly two dozen. Investigations by the security agencies into the
7/11 Mumbai blasts have revealed that the executioners of the plan were ready
for a fidayeen encounter with the police in case of any confrontation.
Those who executed the plot on that fateful
Tuesday had arrived on the scene hours before the strike and are believed
to have fled the country soon after the bombs went off, highly placed sources
told the Pioneer.
Investigations have revealed the abject failure
of the Mumbai Police, which was clueless even as seven groups of heavily armed
fidayeen freely entered Churchgate railway station within a short span of
time. The fidayeen who planted the explosives in the first class compartments
exited unnoticed despite carrying heavy rexine bags stuffed with arms and
ammunition.
Security agencies are also worried about the
deep penetration of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) in Mumbai's suburbs. Local elements
were drafted to hoodwink police and intelligence during the preparation of
the assault. Sources feel that the terrorists may have also conducted dry
runs in Mumbai local trains and they chose Churchgate station due to its holding
capacity.
Sources feel that the entire bloody operation
was carried out by a group of at least 20 to 24 fidayeen. Investigations have
revealed that they were given instructions to retaliate in the event of being
challenged. Investigating agencies have come to this conclusion after carrying
out an in-depth examination of the crime scene. It has now emerged that women
members were also used in the conspiracy.
The presence of women helped the terrorists
to camouflage their identities, the sources further said. Looking at the meticulous
execution of the blasts, one thing is sure that the preparations for the blasts
were made much in advance and the executors arrived on to leave their signatures,
intelligence sources said.
The operation to bomb local trains running
on the busy Western Line was planned on the lines of al Qaeda's attack on
World Trade Centre (WTC), New York. It has now been revealed that the modules
did not use cell phones to avoid detection. They instead used e-mail accounts
with common passwords. The e-mails were not sent as they accessed the accounts
by using the passwords and discussed their plan of action by saving the text
in the draft boxes.
Sources said central intelligence agencies
and Mumbai Police have come across such e-mail accounts containing operational
details of the conspiracy leading to the serial blasts. Hundreds of cyber
cafes of Mumbai were placed under the scanner by the agencies for the clues
about the terrorists.
During the scanning of thousands of calls
made at least 24 hours before and after the blast, special attention was paid
to calls made to foreign countries. Emphasis was accorded to identify those
who were in Mumbai and were using roaming services.
Sources said the conspirators had stopped
using mobile phones for communicating with each other. They did this obviously
to avoid detection. Agencies have now trained their attention on those who
live in chawls and shanties and are reportedly missing after Tuesday evening.
The only hitch, which is bothering the agencies,
is that they are yet to make final sketches of the suspects as there are so
many who claim to have seen them.
Evidences at blasts sites are being studied
to narrow down the search of the accused, sources added, describing the probe
as one of the biggest ever manhunts by the central intelligence agencies.
The probe is also focusing on whether the incidents like the recent disturbances
at Bhiwandi in Thane district, or the crackdown on SIMI groups in the past
few months has anything to do with the blasts, the sources said.
