Author: Mayank Towari
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: July 16, 2006
Introduction: Sponsored by Pak, many of them
have upped their ante but are hard to identify
In the aftermath of the serial blasts on trains
in Mumbai, sleuths and security experts of the country are training their
radars on sleeper agents who have their bosses across the border. "Pakistan
supported sleeper agents have heightened their activity in India after being
dormant for years," a senior government official told Hindustan Times.
This group of terrorists will never be caught.
If they are spotted, their names and addresses will figure in a top-secret
file. The security agencies will work on the premise that a round the clock
surveillance on their movements may yield clues about an impending terror
strike-like the bomb explosions that rocked Mumbai. If that doesn't work,
they may get eliminated.
Home ministry officials told HT that till
May this year, the Indian government was aware of the presence of nearly 1,000
sleeper agents all over the country. "They (sleeper agents) are concentrated
mostly in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Western UP and Gujarat," the official
said. Unfortunately, that's all that is known about them. With inputs suggesting
a spurt in their activity, it is going to be tough days ahead for the security
agencies.
Those sleeper agents who have been identified
have often been natives of India but who moved elsewhere in early life (read
Pakistan) before returning to India. Till recently most sleepers were hailing
from Jammu and Kashmir but that trend is fast disappearing. They now come
from all parts of the country Theory apart, senior home ministry officials
assert that a sleeper agent is different from couriers and carriers - people
like Ajaz Hussain Khwaja who was arrested by the special cell of the Delhi
Police from Janpura in South Delhi, a day after the Mumbai blasts. Hailing
from the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, Khwaja was arrested with
two kilograms of RDX and Rs 49 in cash. Both were meant for further delivery
to militants.
"A sleeper agent would not compromise
his cover for a small operation like supplying arms, giving details of a plan
or forwarding hawala money. Their identity is known only to a close circle
of bosses and the terrorists who take their assistance don't know who they
are. For example, a militant may be told that in Delhi he will get some emails
instructing him where a safe house has been arranged and where he should collect
essentials from. It is this anonymity, coupled with an Indian passport (mostly
legal) that makes sleepers so unassailable," a senior police officer
said.
Delhi's most interesting encounter with a
sleeper agent was soon after the Red Fort attack in December 2000. A man called
Ashfaq Ahmed was arrested as the mastermind of the attack and has since been
awarded the death sentence.
He came to India in May 2000 to set up a base.
He married an Indian woman, so loyal that she hurled abuses at the judge who
pronounced the death sentence. He set up a computer centre in Gafoor Market
in Okhla on which he invested in excess of Rs 6 lakh. That's where according
to security officials, the similarity between Ashfaq and sleeper agents ends.
"He was a sleeper agent in the sense that the best sleepers are those
who are able to earn enough money to finance themselves. However since he
was actively involved in the operation we have our serious doubts. Plus his
incubation period (the time a sleeper takes to get comfortable. This could
run into nearly four to five years) was too short," a senior home ministry
officer said.
