Author: Naveen Ammembala
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: December 15, 2008
URL: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Mumbai,+IISc+attackers+were+trained+together&artid=3/9%7CucZtRqQ=
The interrogation of Sabahuddin alias Saba,
the alleged prime accused in the attack on the Indian Institute of Science,
has clearly established the role of Pakistan's army and Inter-Services Intelligence
in sponsoring and fomenting terrorist activities in India.
Saba, 24, was arrested from Nepal in February
this year during the course of investigations into the January 1 attack on
the CRPF camp in Rampur.
Saba's interrogation report, a copy of which
is with The New Indian Express, says that he has confessed to having met Zaki-ur-
Rehman (Lashkar commander who plotted the attack on Mumbai) after completing
Daura- e-Khaas - code for commando training in Pakistan-occupied Kahmir. Saba
has said that that he met Lakhvi at the house of Muzammil, another Lashkar
commander who plotted the Mumbai attacks. Muzammil even took Saba to his home
in Islamabad.
Lakhvi and Abu Al-Qama, another commander
who has unleashed terror on India, asked Saba to join ISI for jihad. Lakhvi
then introduced him to Abdullah Mujahid, the coordinator between Lashkar and
ISI. "Mujahid took me to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (Lashkar's political front which
has now been banned) headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore," Saba said.
Talking about his entry into the world of
terrorism, Saba told his interrogators that he came in contact with Lashkar
when he was just 18. A student of Aligarh Muslim University, he was pursuing
high school education and studying the sciences. He met an MBBS student called
Doctor alias Shariq Ahmed who was a member of the now-banned Students' Islamic
Movement of India (SIMI). Doctor and another of his SIMI associate, Ajmal,
coaxed Saba into joining jihad. The post- Godhra riots of 2002 strengthened
their resolve, and Saba and Doctor went to the Lashkar training camp in PoK
for Daura-e- Khaas.
After meeting Lakhvi, Saba stayed in Lahore
for around three and half months where he was given a room and a computer
during October-November 2002. The room was situated opposite a mosque at Bhatta
Chowk in Lahore.
During this period, Saba has said that he
met Col Rashid Kiyani, Abdul Majid and Subedar Babar of the ISI who trained
him in intelligence gathering and surveillance.
"Captain Mallik Zafar was assigned to
train me in firing and also to entertain me in the form of taking me out,"
Saba said.
"After three and a half months, ISI decided
to send me back to India. They arranged a passport in the name of Mohammed
Shafiq for me with a fake address in Faisalabad, Punjab province, Pakistan.
Subedar Javed, an ISI officer, took me to Nepal Embassy in Islamabad and obtained
a visa," he said. Saba added that the ISI officer told the Nepalese embassy
that Saba was a carpet trader from Pakistan.