Author: Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 24, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Uttar_Pradesh_biggest_terror_hub_after_JK/articleshow/3520007.cms
Every time a deadly bomb goes off in some
part of India and the police begin to investigate, the road to suspects invariably
leads to Uttar Pradesh, fast emerging as the biggest terror hub in the country
after Jammu & Kashmir. Of the 54 major terror strikes in the country since
2000, at least 45 had a direct link with UP, which itself was rattled by 14
blasts.
As parts of the most populous state in India
turn into a terror factory, it's not surprising that the two Indian Mujahideen
cadre shot dead in Delhi last week belonged to Azamgarh, one of the most backward
districts in eastern UP. And so are the three men arrested by Delhi Police
on Sunday. In fact, almost all the suspects for the recent attacks in Jaipur,
Ahmedabad and Delhi came from Azamgarh, where a manhunt is on to nab the terror
suspects.
With a large number of young, uneducated and
unemployed Muslim youth walking the streets aimlessly, the state has become
a fertile ground for breeding terror. Terrorism, according to intelligence
sources, began to grow roots in the state in 1985 when Azam Ghauri, a native
of Andhra Pradesh, and Abdul Karim Tunda of UP set up a unit to provide logistics
support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Ghauri and Tunda, alongwith a Mumbai doctor, Jalees
Ansari, had set off a series of explosions in the country on December 6, 1993
- the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition. This was the first
known LeT strike in the country outside J&K. Since then almost all major
terror attacks have had some UP connection.
Terror outfits from UP have made headlines
in the neighbouring countries as well. On October 1, 2005, HuJI 'commander'
Mufti Abdul Hannan was arrested in Dhaka. During interrogation, Hannan confessed
to have been trained in Peshawar (Pakistan) and fought in Afghanistan. But
before going to Pakistan, Hannan had spent six years at a seminary in Shahjahanpur
district of UP.
Although most of the terrorists from UP have
been directly involved in the bomb attacks, some of them have been arrested
for their role in other subversive activities like forming sleeper cells and
dormant terror modules. In 2007, four persons, including two Hizbul Mujahideen
men, were convicted by a Delhi court for possessing explosives and conspiring
to wage war against the country. Two of the convicts, who turned out to be
active SIMI members, were from Lucknow.
In June 2008, Delhi Police arrested a Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
terrorist, Habib-ur-Rehman, for allegedly providing logistics support to two
Pakistanis caught with a large cache of ammunition and RDX in Delhi in September
2001. Rehman belongs to Moradabad district of UP.
According to intelligence reports, around
79 incidents of subversive activities were reported from 34 districts, including
Lucknow, in UP between 2001 and 2008. Azamgarh, which is now emerging as the
latest hotspot on the country's terror map, tops the list of these dubious
districts.
