Author: Shishir Gupta
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 20, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/11031.html
Introduction: This is what security agencies
find after interrogating two Pak nationals caught sneaking in from Bangladesh
The interrogation of two Pakistani nationals
caught on the Indo-Bangladesh border on August 14 has revealed that the Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM) was preparing to target Mumbai with suicide bombers.
According to security agencies, the two -
Mohammed Sohail Afzal of Gujarat in Pakistan's Punjab province and Mohammed
Zubair of Chakwal near Rawalpindi - were instructed by JeM's anti-India operations
chief and IC-814 hijacker Ibrahim Athar to carry out suicide attacks in the
metro. Athar is the brother of JeM founder Masood Azhar, who was freed to
secure the release of the IC-814 hostages.
Afzal and Zubair were caught by a Border Security
Force (BSF) patrol near Bashirhat in North 24 Parganas district as they were
crossing in with the help of a tout. The BSF decided to showcase this catch
even before Mumbai police and security agencies moved in. Now, the two are
being interrogated by security agencies seeking clues to the 7/11 Mumbai blasts.
A hunt is on for their contact, one Rashid,
an old Afghan hand who is said to be operating in Maharashtra for the last
seven years. Rashid, who was trained in Pakistan's North-Western Frontier
Province, may hold clues to the Mumbai train blasts, security agencies say.
During interrogation, the two intruders are
learnt to have said that the they were trained for suicide missions at a JeM
camp in Balakot, Pakistan. Athar is said to have seen them off for Dhaka at
the Karachi airport on July 1. They stayed at the house of one Abdul Rahim,
in Mirpur Colony, Dhaka, before crossing into India.
They have also identified three of the five
JeM suicide attackers of the Ram Janmabhoomi complex - Assadullah, Ayubi,
and Darkhasti - as having trained with them at the Balakhot camp.
Interrogators say they are trying to pin down
what the two intruders were doing in Dhaka after the 7/11 blasts. They have
learnt that the two were instructed not to communicate by radio and keep in
touch with Athar only by e-mail. They were to be escorted to Mumbai and handed
over to Rashid, who was to receive instruction from across the border on when
the attacks were to be carried out.
shishir.gupta@expressindia.com
