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India-Pakistan

Ahmedabad Blasts Suspect Held In Aurangabad

2012-03-28

In a major success for the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, its officers locked away Mohammad Abrar Babu Khan alias Abrar Sheikh, a suspect in the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts, and his accomplice Mohammad Shakir, 32, following a fierce shootout at the Himayat Baug area in Aurangabad on Monday. Their aide Khaleel Qureshi, 20, was killed in the cross-fire. All the cool authorities do crossfires, these days. The group reportedly has links with the banned terror outfit, Indian Mujahideen A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor... (IM). The group, all former Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) members, Kicked out because they're too old... had also plotted to eliminate the judges of the Allahabad high court who had pronounced the verdict in the Babri Masjid case, said sources. "We must have dire revenge!" For the last three months, the police had been working on information that the group, led by second-in-command Abrar, has been trying to set up their base in Maharashtra and were active in Aurangabad, Jalna and Buldhana, revealed ATS chief Rakesh Maria. Mahmoud the Weasel's Indian cousins do thriving business on their side of the border... "They were planning to commit robberies in the state and we have been trying to track them," he said. Typical of the noble Lions of Islam -- unable to get enough dosh legitimately from their fellow worshippers, they turn to a life of crime. In July-June 2011, the Madhya Pradesh police had locked away Abu Faisal, who has links with the IM, from the Juhu Gully area in Mumbai. "The group had carried out a spate of robberies in Madhya Pradesh and used the money for terror funding. After Faisal was locked away, Abrar took charge," said Maria. During interrogation, "Corporal Mukkerjee: bring the utensils of questioning!" "Even the number seven Craftsman, Captain?" "Especially the number seven Craftsman!" Faisal had told the police that his group was planning to kill two high court judges who had given judgment in the Babri Masjid case," said a police officer, requesting anonymity. On the formation of the group, an officer said that after security agencies turned the heat on Faisal, he had gone into hiding at at his in-laws' place in Madhya Pradesh. "There he met senior SIMI leader Safdar Nagori, who is currently in jail. Later Faisal went to Kerala for terrorist training. Faisal and Abrar were also in touch with top SIMI functionary Abdus Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer. Abrar's name also figures in the 2008 Ahmedabad blast case charge sheet. Another key member of the group Aqeel Khilji, 42, is still on the lam," said the officer. "The group had bought a house in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand where fake passports could be prepared," said another police officer. It would be a bit difficult to bring the usual in from Pakistan... On Monday, the Aurangabad ATS had got a tip-offthat Abrar Shakir and Qureshi would arrive at Himayat Baug. "When the police approached them, they opened fire. The police fired nine rounds, while the three men fired five rounds. Constable Sheikh Arif Sheikh Ismail got shot on his left shoulder and Qureshi was killed in the encounter. Those Indians are showing initiative again. Not just a crossfire, but an encounter, too! D'you suppose the X marking the spot would show up on Google Earth? Shakir, who was shot on both his thighs, is in hospital," said Maria. Dr. Quincy awaits events with his customary sang froid.

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India-Pakistan

Kerala computer engineer’s story casts light on jihad in India

2009-05-08

Late last year, four Keralites training with a Lashkar-e-Taiba unit in the Kupwara mountains, along the Line of Control in northern Kashmir, were shot dead by security forces. And since the September shootout, the police in Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have been scrambling to unravel the threads that tied Indian Mujahideen groups in the south to each other and to the Lashkar. But the investigations also show that the Indian Mujahideen was fed and watered by transnational financial networks: networks linked both to diasporic Islamists living in west Asia and Pakistan-based organisations like the Lashkar. From the story of Ernakulam-born computer engineer Sarfaraz Nawaz, who was expelled by the Oman authorities earlier this year, investigators have been able to understand the relationship between domestic terror and diaspora cash. Like so many Indian Mujahideen-linked figures, Nawaz’s journey into jihad began in the Students Islamic Movement of India’s study groups. Nawaz began attending SIMI meetings in 1995, soon after he graduated from high school. He became an “Ikhwan” or full-time SIMI member within a year and by March 2000 was made a member of the now-proscribed Islamist organisation’s central committee. While in New Delhi, where he also served as the SIMI’s office secretary, Nawaz developed a close relationship with several key members of what would later become the organisation’s jihad faction, including Safdar Nagori, Yahya Kamakutty and Peedical Abdul Shibly. When the SIMI was proscribed in 2001, Nawaz decided to move abroad. He first found work in a computer firm operating out of Ibra, in Oman, and later joined the Ajman-based Ibn Sina Medical Centre, which was owned by the former Kerala SIMI president Abdul Ghafoor. Later, other SIMI contacts helped him to find a job in Dubai. Finally, in July 2006 Nawaz moved back to Muscat and began working at the al-Noor Education Trust, which offered computer courses. Newly married and prosperous, Nawaz appeared to live the kind of quiet life most in the Indian diaspora aspire to. But the Oman authorities now believe the appearance was intended to deceive. Soon after returning to Muscat, the investigators say, Nawaz made contact with Abdul Aziz al-Hooti, a Muscat-based businessman with substantial interests in the automobile business and the Lashkar. Hooti, in turn, introduced Nawaz to a ranking Pakistani Lashkar operative, who is so far known only by the aliases Rehan and Wali. Early in 2008, the police in Hyderabad and Bangalore believe, Nawaz and Rehan met in Dubai to finalise funding for two important “projects.” In Hyderabad, fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Tadiyantavide Nasir was preparing several Keralites to journey across the Line of Control to Lashkar training camps in Pakistan. Nasir used his position as an instructor at the city’s Jamia Arifiya Nooriya seminary to recruit volunteers. He set up a safe house in Madikere, near Coorg, for their basic indoctrination. In August, 2008, Rehan allegedly provided the funds and contacts that led the first group of volunteers’ travel to Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Mujahideen units also needed funding, Nawaz was told, to execute a series of bombings in Bangalore. Rehan and Hooti, the Bangalore police say, asked Nawaz to travel to India for an on-site briefing about these plans. Both men were evidently impressed by what he found, for an estimated 2,500 Oman Rials was despatched to the Indian Mujahideen through a Kannur-based hawala dealer. Later, the investigators say, Dhaka-based Lashkar operative Mubashir Shahid provided more money to secure Nasir’s escape into Bangladesh and to compensate the families of the men killed in Jammu and Kashmir. Police officers involved in the Nawaz investigation believe that several similar funding networks fed different elements of the Indian Mujahideen. Indian Mujahideen co-founder Sadiq Sheikh, for example, lived in Dubai for several months with the help of ganglord Aftab Ansari and his lieutenant Amir Reza Khan. During his stay, Sheikh said in a statement to the Hyderabad Police, he discovered that key Indian Mujahideen commander Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri also visited the city to raise funds. Sheikh never met with Shahbandri’s contacts, but it seems likely that Nawaz himself was in touch with several SIMI-linked figures who were engaged in fundraising for jihadist groups. Important among them was CAM Basheer, a fugitive SIMI leader, who is thought to be living in Sharjah using fake identification. Basheer, police sources say, visited Nawaz in Muscat at least once and carried funds intended to facilitate Nasir’s efforts to recruit jihadists in Kerala. Maulana Abdul Bari, a Hyderabad cleric last sighted in Saudi Arabia, is also thought to have raised funds in the diaspora for the training of jihadist cadre recruited in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

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India-Pakistan

Politics of 'Hindu terror'

2008-11-16

By Chandan Mitra Ab Tak Chhappan! The title of this Ram Gopal Varma film easily comes to mind observing the manner in which the Maharashtra ATS is going about picking up people all over India and slapping them into the cooler on a daily basis, ostensibly in a bid to unearth dimensions of "Hindu terror". We have lost count of the number of persons interrogated, sent on police or judicial remand, their brains penetrated with narcotic substances to induce confession to their "crimes". But not a day has passed, since Sadhvi Pragya was nabbed some 25 days ago, without somebody or the other being arrested, allegedly in connection with a fantastic plot conjured up by the Maharashtra Police. Those arrested included serving and retired Army officers, school and college teachers, political activists and now even a resourceful sadhu. Every evening at the news meeting in our office, the first question asked is, "What's the score today? Ab tak ...?" Buoyed by enthusiastic endorsement from the "secular" media, which is gleefully eating out of the ATS' hands, the so-called Hindu terror plot keeps assuming an ever-growing magnitude. Not content with pinning the blame for the minor bomb blasts in Malegaon and Modasa, then Nanded and later Kanpur, the ATS' ambitions have increased manifold. Currently, it is busy trying to implicate the same group in the 2006 Samjhauta Express blasts. Curiously, SIMI commander Safdar Nagori's narco tests have resulted in a confession that his organisation executed the Samjhauta bombings. Does this mean that so-called Hindu terrorists have been synchronising their moves with SIMI? Or, maybe ATS will tomorrow come up with a theory that "Hindu terrorists" have been funding and masterminding the actions of jihadis who innocently fell into the Hindu trap in the lure of money. Far fetched? Not really, if you consider the gigantic yarns being spun around the purported confessions of the detained suspects. Interestingly, in the last seven days, contradictory "leaks" have been planted on the handpicked media about the responses of detained suspects. A particularly hilarious story front-paged by a leading national daily claimed that the narco-analysis of Sadhvi Pragya came to a naught because she meditates daily! Apparently, those who are ardent practitioners of that spiritual art become immune to narco tests because their mental powers are strong enough to resist drug-induced coercion aimed at extracting confessions. Moral of the story: All criminals ought to mediate, for then narco-tests shall fail and they go scot-free! By the way, it would be interesting to know if the servants arrested in the Arushi Talwar murder case were also trained in the art of meditation. Must be, for the CBI failed to get any information out of them and finally they had to be released. Similarly, Lt Col. Srikant Purohit, too, foiled the investigators' desperate attempts to cajole him into confessing his crime because, we are told, as an Armyman, he was trained to absorb stress and no amount of drugs got him to talk. Halted on their tracks, the ATS then leaked purported details of Purohit's confessions, which were eagerly lapped up by sections of the media to further their campaign to equate "Hindu" with jihadi terror. Following the arrest of Swami Amritanand aka Dayanand Pandey or Sudhakar Dwivedi, we were treated to details of his past, website photos, his ashrams, connections with top national personalities, ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam downwards. But what we never got to know was his role in the Malegaon blasts. Within hours of his arrest, the Haryana Railway Police swooped down on him apparently to discover his link to the Samjhauta Express blasts, which self-confessedly, SIMI had carried out. Without a shred of evidence to that effect, he has already been awarded the epithet of "Terror Guru". In the same way, the highly respected Bhonsala Military School has been dubbed a terror factory - a term used hitherto for Talibanised madrasas. Merely because some members of a little known outfit called Abhinav Bharat, an adjunct of the largely defunct Hindu Mahasabha, visited the premises of the school, its custodians were hounded to the point of putting in their papers. Judging by the hype accompanying the "Hindu terror" revelations, it would appear that nothing else is happening in this country for the last month or so. With every passing day, the ATS' concoctions get more incredible, the scale of "leaked" stories magnified and the media's tone becomes predictably shriller. All this before any of the arrested persons is formally charged or given an opportunity to defend themselves. Wasn't it the Congress that kept cautioning us against trial by media? Wasn't it Manmohan Singh who plaintively lamented that everything in this country gets politicised? But when a trial by the media is actually sponsored by the Government and agencies under its control, like the Maharashtra ATS, nobody sees anything wrong with it. That, in the process, even the Army is being hauled over the coals and its exalted status sullied beyond repair is of no consequence. Clearly, the Government thinks tarnishing the Army serves its short-term agenda: Putting BJP on the backfoot. Nothing is too sacrosanct to achieve that aim in an election year. In the face of mounting public anger against the UPA's all-round failure, especially its vote-bank politics over terrorism, the Government desperately needed a face-saver. So, they decided to construct an elaborate theory of all-pervasive Hindu terror hoping to convince the electorate that the Hindutva forces are the real fountainhead of all terrorist activities. It is a matter of time before it is volubly argued by "secular" politicians and their media cheerleaders that jihadi terror is nothing but an act of self-defence in the face of rampant "Hindu terrorist" provocation. With investigating agencies dragging their feet (could it be under orders from above?), failing to convict any terror accused so far, this is a clever ploy to divert attention from the real danger jihadi terror poses to India. Determined to thwart efforts by BJP-ruled States to introduce tough anti-terror laws, the Government has directed the President to return Narendra Modi's proposed GUJCOC, drafted on the lines of MCOCA, which is operational in UPA-ruled Maharashtra. And the Centre is equally determined not to execute Afzal Guru despite the Supreme Court sentencing him to death several years back. Incidentally, Muslim-majority Indonesia has fewer qualms: It executed three Islamic radicals last week, soon after they were convicted for the Bali bombings. But our Government is focused on damning Hindu organisations by a sustained campaign of calumny. I wonder if the Maharashtra ATS will soon "unearth" global linkages of Hindu terror and accuse some sadhvi, swami or an Army officer of having plotted 9/11 too! What the Congress-led Government is failing to recognise is that public anger against a regime increasingly seen as decidedly anti-Hindu, is rising. In the process, the Congress may actually be helping to create a Hindu vote for the first time in India's history. Pyromaniacs often end up being consumed by the very fire they light

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India-Pakistan

Ahmedabad blasts accused sent to 7-day police custody

2008-10-08

SIMI leader Safdar Nagori and four other accused in Ahmedabad serial blasts of July 26, were on Tuesday sent to police custody till October 14. The five accused Nagori, Abdul Sibley, Hafeez Hussain, Kamruddin Nagori and Amil Pervez were produced before metropolitan magistrate G M Patel after their one-day police remand ended on Tuesday. The crime branch, investigating the blasts cases had sought 12-day police custody of the accused for their alleged role in the blast that took place in Naroda area of the city on July 26. But the court granted police custody of the accused till October 14. While arguing the demand for custody of the five accused, special public prosecutor Mitesh Amin submitted that they were in touch with Indian Mujaheedin members arrested by the Mumbai and Delhi police. Their custody was also required to get more information about absconding SIMI members accused in the blasts cases and to find out about people who attended the 'Jihadi' meetings at camps held by the banned organisation, Amin said. Meanwhile, accused Tanveer Pathan and Jahir Patel were sent to one-day police custody for allegedly planting bomb in Katargam area of the city. Another accused Raziuddin Nasir was also sent to one-day police custody for his alleged role in blast that took place in Maninagar area of the city.

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India-Pakistan

Cops look for SIMI links in Delhi blast

2008-09-29

Even as Delhi Police has not found Indian Mujahideen's signature in Saturday's Mehrauli blast, intelligence agencies are looking for possible SIMI (IM's parent body) footprints in the incident taking cues from what the outfit's leaders -- including its general secretary Safdar Nagori -- claimed before Madhya Pradesh cops five months back. Nagori had told police during his interrogation in April that SIMI had 125 hardcore cadre who were trained in its camps at Dharwad in Karnataka during 2005-07 and subsequently fanned out to run independent sleeper cells across the country. "Even though 25-odd SIMI activists have been arrested since then, over 100 of its men must be prowling in different cities with their modules remaining intact in Delhi as well where they have some illegal Bangladeshi nationals on their rolls as foot soldiers," said a senior official referring to Nagori's 50-page interrogation report. Sleuths also observed that Nagori's disclosure about the outfit's camps in Dharwad not taking up explosive training in detail may explain why the Mehrauli bomb appeared to be a crude one -- a handiwork of someone not well trained. Nagori had mentioned that the training for bomb-making remained exclusive for a select group of persons (who might have been arrested) and some others who had gone to Pakistan to learn the art. He told his interrogators that there were 30-40 trainees in Karachi during 2006-07. Similarly, Nagori and others had mentioned during their interrogation that special training in "bike riding" had been given to SIMI activists. Taking cue from such disclosures in April, IB sleuths now wonder whether the same bikers who got training in Dharwad camp had carried out the blast in Mehrauli -- a possibility which is being looked into now, particularly when Delhi Police continues to grope in the dark for leads. The home ministry has, meanwhile, postponed a northern zonal council meeting which was scheduled to be held in Shimla on Monday and instead called senior cops of anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of different states to discuss the terror issue here in the wake of Saturday's blast. CMs of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and HP and representatives of Delhi, Chandigarh and J&K were supposed to attend the gathering in Shimla. Sources in the ministry said the meeting of ATS cops would mainly be with the IB sleuths who have been coordinating with the state police in conducting operations in the wake of serial blasts here on September 13.

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India-Pakistan

AP police files case against Tauqeer, Abu Basher

2008-09-27

The noose was further tightened around top SIMI leader Safdar Nagori and alleged brain behind Indian Mujahideen(IM) Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer with Andhra Pradesh filing cases against them and eight others on the charge of conspiring to wage a war against the state by planning terror camps. The case was registered based on the confessions of suspected SIMI activist Mohammed Jaber who was arrested by city police earlier this month, officials of the Central Crime Station (CCS) said. Police claimed Jaber, who also figures in the case, told investigation officers that Nagori, during a visit to Hyderabad in May 2007, had inquired about a location on the city outskirts to set up a terrorist training camp on the lines of a terror camp unearthed at Kalaghatgi forest area in Dharwad district of Karnataka early this year. Jaber, currently in police custody, told the officials Nagori and two other top SIMI functionaries stayed at his residence here and planned a terror training camp in forest area of Anantagiri Hills in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district. The proposed camp was aimed at recruiting youths from neighbouring states to train in jihadi and sabotage activities, a CCS official said. Nagori, who is in custody of Gujarat Police, was arrested from Indore in March this year. The other accused in the case include Abu Basher, alleged mastermind of Ahmedabad blasts, another top SIMI functionary Qamaruddin Nagori, Muqeemuddin Yasir and Raziuddin Nasir - sons of Moulana Naseeruddin, a city resident accused in the assassination of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, and Motasim Billah, he said.

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India-Pakistan

Atiq, killed in shootout, was Indian Mujahideen mastermind

2008-09-20

Twenty-four-year-old Bashir alias Atiq, who was gunned down in an encounter with Delhi Police on Friday morning at Batla House, is now described as the mastermind of Indian Mujahideen (IM), which carried out blasts in UP, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi. The other terrorist shot dead in the encounter was identified as Mohammad Sajid. The emergence of this new module of IM which coordinated the attacks with SIMI has surprised investigators since Abu Bashir and Abdus Subhan, a close ally of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori, were described as the brains behind these attacks. But special cell of Delhi Police, working with central intelligence agencies, zeroed on Bashir alias Atiq after the Ahmedabad blasts. ''We had information that Atiq had gone to Ahmedabad from Delhi by train before the blasts, along with 10 persons, and returned to the capital on the day of the blasts with 12,'' said joint commissioner of police (special cell) Karnal Singh. This IM module is being described by the investigators as the one which prepared the bombs which were quite similar to the ones in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Jaipur, UP and Hyderabad. Right from the explosives used to the wooden case, the clock timer and two detonators, everything carried the same signature. Intelligence officials say there could be two modules and the work of planting explosives had been divided. Normally, the modules are not aware of each other's existence. Abdus Subhan alias Tauqeer still remains the key factor and common link to Abu Bashir and Atiq alias Bashir. However, Abu Bashir had never met his namesake, claimed investigators, and had no direct role in the Delhi blasts though he told the investigators that he was aware of the blasts being planned in Delhi. The operation at Batla House was planned by the cops after central intelligence agencies and special cell tracking the movements of Atiq came to know he was hiding there. The reservations had been done under assumed names. The police had learnt that Atiq used to visit Delhi frequently and meet his sympathisers from SIMI but avoided using mobile phones. He used them only while communicating with Taqueer or Qayamuddin, said an officer. The cops claim more attacks had been planned in Delhi and with Friday's operation, they have foiled them. Atiq had told his parents in Azamgarh that he was going to Delhi to join a computer class. However, speaking to various news channels, Atiq's brother Raqib, who also works for a news channel said: "My brother was never involved in terror activities and was framed by the police. And now he is dead."

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India-Pakistan

SIMI now the key player behind Indian terrorism

2008-08-17

In each of the dozen major bomb blasts that have taken place in India over the past three years, the name of one organization has cropped up with unerring constancy. Indian police and investigative agencies explored possible links of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) after each terrorist blast, but achieved a breakthrough only after 27 serial bombs ripped through western Gujarat state's principal city Ahmedabad on July 28 killing 56 people. The Gujarat state police announced on Saturday that it had arrested nine people - most of them were SIMI activists - and the suspected 'mastermind' behind the blasts. The SIMI, a Muslim fundamentalist organization, was founded in 1977 in Aligarh town of Uttar Pradesh, known for its famous Muslim university. Mohammad Ahmadullah, who currently holds an academic position in the United States, founded the SIMI 'to educate and enlighten Muslim youth in India.' In a recent interview with website rediff.com, he states he no longer has any links with the SIMI as it has been hijacked by radical elements. The SIMI, in its publications, lists as its objectives, the propagation of Islam and jihad for the cause of Islam. The organization saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s with units established in several states spread as far as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala in the south, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, central Madhya Pradesh and eastern West Bengal and Assam. SIMI activists believe in a pan-Islamic state, a Muslim ummah, and have said they want to convert India into an Islamic land. SIMI literature and pamphlets have referred to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar as the true believers or mujahid who have taken up jihad or holy war for the ummah. Omar, particularly, is a role model for many SIMI leaders. It is believed that SIMI gets substantial funds from international organizations for Muslim youth based in the Middle East. The Indian government banned the SIMI in 2001 on the grounds that it was inciting communal violence. But intelligence officials say the organization simply went underground, regrouped its core membership and continued to draw new recruits. It currently operates through various front organizations such as religious study groups, research centres and non-profit organizations, they said. According to the police the SIMI has a core membership of at least 400 full-time cadres and 200,000 members. It is believed the SIMI's ranks swelled substantially after the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which more than 1,500 people, most of them Muslims, were killed. The police have been tailing SIMI activists over the years and several have been arrested. SIMI chief Safdar Nagori was picked up as recently as March 2008 by the police in Madhya Pradesh along with 12 other activists. He is in jail and has been charged with sedition and inciting communal trouble. Nagori is believed to have been instrumental in setting up sleeper cells of activists and organizing camps where members were trained in using guns, guerrilla warfare, jungle survival, withstanding interrogation and raising legal issues about their rights if arrested. Both Kerala and Madhya Pradesh police have reported that such camps were held in forest areas in their states. Police say the SIMI has links with Islamic terror groups based in Pakistan and in Bangladesh. They are also believed to have links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but the police has not yet been able to establish any direct link in connection with the recent Gujarat blasts. The SIMI and Pakistan-based Islamic terror groups have been named by the Indian police in connection with every major bomb attack in India over the past three years, including the serial bomb blasts on Mumbai's rail network in 2006, which killed 187 people.

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India-Pakistan

SIMI chief in ATS custody

2008-06-24

Safdar Nagori (38) the all- India secretary –general and Shibly Peedical Abdul (30) south-India-chief of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) are under the police custody of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Mumbai police till June 26. Nagori and Shibly were brought to city by ATS along with Nagori’s brother Kamruddin (35), Hafeez Hussain Tajuddin Mullah alias Zahid (27) other top SIMI members on Sunday June 22. Nagori was arrested on March 26, 2008 by the Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh Police in Indore. All the four accused were wanted in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act case in Maharashtra for printing and distributing Jehadi literature in 2006. The accused were produced at the Esplanade court on Sunday afternoon. To understand just how big the arrest of Nagori is, one needs to have a look at his past. Nagori, a native of Madhya Pradesh joined the SIMI over 10 years ago but fell out in 2001 when several SIMI leaders urged the organization to renounce terror and return to its more academic and religious roots. In 2001-2002, he came to Delhi and spent a year, which indicates he had some local support. In 2003, he moved to Mumbai. The fact that he spent the next five years in Murshidabad in West Bengal clearly indicates that he has a big base in West Bengal, where no big Jehadi attack has taken place, except the USIS attack in 2002. Investigators say that Nagori was training a group of 200 people, who would be dedicated foot soldiers for Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban in India and abroad. By 2005, he was also working for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He provided crucial support to LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Taliban for money. In February this year, two terrorists, Naseer and Asadullah, were held in the Devangere district of Karnataka. Both were interrogated and admitted to being supervised by Nagrori.

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India-Pakistan

Jihadist Groups Perpetrate Terror in Jaipur, India

2008-05-25

By: Tufail Ahmad * Introduction On May 13, 2008, the Indian city of Jaipur, a popular tourist destination, was rocked by a series of explosions. Nine bombs attached to bicycles exploded in five different locations within 12 minutes, killing over 60 people and wounding 200 others. Immediately after the bombings, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called them an attempt to create strife between the Muslim and Hindu communities in the country, but declined to speculate which groups could have been responsible. [1] Over the last two decades of Pakistan-supported armed secessionism, India has witnessed several acts of Islamist terrorism, most of them in Indian Kashmir. However, in recent years, large-scale attacks have occurred in other parts of India as well, targeting temples, mosques, shrines, railway stations, courthouses, tourist centers, and, in 2001, even the Indian parliament. In most of the cases, the police failed to establish the identity of the attackers, but the blame was invariably placed on Pakistan-based militant groups, possibly due to the lack of any other plausible explanation. After the bombings in Jaipur, capital of the western Indian state of Rajasthan, suspicion fell on two specific Islamist groups: the Bangladeshi group Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami and the home-grown group called Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Both are well known in India, and both are linked to the Pakistan-based Islamist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. [2] Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami Has Established Cells in India Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, founded in the 1980s, is active in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. According to the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Siasat, the nature of the Jaipur attacks suggests that it has managed to establish a terrorist force in the state of Rajasthan. [3] The group has been blamed for many previous terror attacks in India, and is known to have links with the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. One of its commanders, Mufti Moinuddin, alias Abu Jandal, was arrested by Bangladeshi security forces in February 2008 in connection with the attempted assassination of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2004. During his interrogation, Abu Jandal revealed that his group supplied grenades to Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in India. [4] India's Ministry of Home Affairs stated in its 2007-2008 annual report that the Pakistan-based militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, as well as the Bangladesh-based group Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, had put down strong roots in India, and were carrying out terrorist activities in the country from bases in neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh. [5] In fact, for the last decade, the Indian government has suspected that Pakistani militant groups were directing their activities from these countries. This was demonstrated by the 1999 hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight out of Katmandu, Nepal, which was diverted to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. It will not be easy for the Indian security agencies to establish any involvement by Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami in the Jaipur blasts, especially if its activities are directed from outside India. Nevertheless, it is clear that the group, which is banned in Bangladesh, has been taking advantage of the porous India-Bangladesh border in order to carry out its activities in India. According to intelligence sources, the group has managed to establish "sleeper cells" in several Indian cities and towns. [6] SIMI Activists Go Underground Another group that has attracted the attention of the Indian police is the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), some of whose members were arrested in connection with the Jaipur blasts. [7] SIMI, based in Ujjan in central India, is a splinter group of the moderate Students Islamic Organization of India, the student movement of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind organization. Its founders, who were inspired by the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, broke away from Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in order to pursue a more radical agenda. In 2001, SIMI was banned by the Indian authorities for suspected links with foreign-based militant groups. According to a press report, SIMI has been establishing secret cells in different Indian states, and has been collaborating with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. [8] Over the past few years, dozens of SIMI activists have been arrested for suspected involvement in plots to perpetrate terrorism in India. In a recent crackdown on the group in Madhya Pradesh, the authorities arrested 13 SIMI activists, including Safdar Nagori, the group's top leader in India. [9] After the Jaipur bombings, the Indian police raided suspected SIMI hideouts in several towns in Rajasthan, but most of the group's activists seem to have gone underground. [10] "Indian Mujahideen" - A New Terrorist Group? Two days after the blasts, a little-known group called Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to media outlets. It has been reported that the email - written in English, and sent from a cybercafé in Ghaziabad near New Delhi - was signed by "Guru Al-Hindi," and threatened further attacks in Rajasthan and in other parts of India. According to the Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Hindustan, the email was accompanied by a video showing reconnaissance footage of the target areas, and was sent from a Yahoo! email account (Yahoo ID: guru_alhindi_jaipur@yahoo.co.uk ). [11] Since the group is unknown, investigators have yet to ascertain whether the email was authentic, or a hoax perpetrated by an individual or individuals trying to obstruct the investigation. [12] It should be noted, however, that the Yahoo! ID used by "Guru Al-Hindi" is similar to the one that was used to send advance warning of the courthouse bombings in Uttar Pradesh in November 2007. The name of the group - Indian Mujahideen - may be an attempt to camouflage its foreign roots and present it as a homegrown phenomenon. [13] Pakistani Leaders and Press Condemn Jaipur Blasts Indian Mujahideen, then, may be an indigenous organization, or a group inspired and supported by outside forces. After the Jaipur blasts, there was immediate concern in Pakistan that suspicion would fall on Pakistan-based groups. The Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jasarat condemned the blasts and stated in an editorial that "the sad [fact] about any terrorist act in India is that Pakistan's name is immediately dragged into it." [14] Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani likewise condemned the Jaipur bomb blasts, saying, "Pakistan condemns all acts of terrorism and reiterates its firm commitment to fighting this scourge along with the international community." [15] Gilani's newly elected civilian government has vowed to continue President Musharraf's policy of improving relations with India and increasing trade and cultural ties in order to share in India's economic prosperity. However, the fact is that most of the Pakistan-based militant groups continue to do as they please, and none of them approved of Musharraf's moderate policies. Lashkar-e-Taiba has renamed itself Jamatud Dawa, and its leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, continues to preach openly in the streets of Lahore. Terrorist commander Maulana Masood Azhar - one of the individuals released by India in exchange for the passengers of the Indian Airlines flight - is likewise at large in Pakistan, as is Dawood Ibrahim, the Indian mastermind behind the 1993 blasts in Bombay. However, during a recent interview on Indian television, Gilani came close to admitting, for the very first time, that Ibrahim was living in Pakistan, and offered to hand him over to India if the latter could present concrete evidence against him. [16] Last Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resisted the urge to blame Pakistan for the Jaipur blasts. He said that there are many reasons for the blasts, one of them being a conspiracy to undermine the relationship between India and Pakistan. [17] He added that he would leave it to Indian authorities to find out who was responsible for the blasts. * Tufail Ahmad is the director of MEMRI's Urdu-Pashtu Media Project. [1] Dainik Hindustan (India), May 14, 2008. [2] Roznama Inquilab (India), May 14, 2008. [3] Roznama Siasat (India), May 14, 2008. [4] Roznama Munsif (India), March 4, 2008. [5] Roznama Siasat (India), April 23, 2008. [6] Roznama Etemaad (India), May 14, 2008. [7] Hindustan Times (India), May 18, 2008. [8] Roznama Munsif (India), February 8, 2008. [9] Indian Express (India), March 28, 2008. [10] The Times of India (India), May 19, 2008. [11] Dainik Hindustan (India), May 16, 2008. [12] Roznama Siasat (India), May 16, 2008. [13] The Times of India (India), May 15, 2008. [14] Roznama Jasarat (Pakistan), May 15, 2008. [15] Daily Times (Pakistan), May 15, 2008. [16] The Hindu (India), May 10, 2008. [17] Roznama Nawa-i-Waqt (Pakistan), May 19, 2008.

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India-Pakistan

New facts emerge on Mumbai blasts

2008-04-15

A Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in February, has provided investigators with new insights into the command-level architecture of the 2006 Mumbai serial bombings that claimed 209 lives. Sabahuddin Ahmed told the interrogators that the bombings were executed under the command of Mohammad Yusuf, code-named “Muzammil,” who controls the Lashkar’s military operations outside Jammu and Kashmir. Lashkar’s overall military chief Mohammad Azam Cheema supervised the operation. Ahmed’s testimony corroborates the findings of the Mumbai Police, which said the bombings were executed by Pakistani Lashkar operatives with assistance from members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). By Ahmed’s account, the Lashkar saw the Mumbai attacks as a model operation, since Indian investigators were unable to link its perpetrators to Pakistan. While several Indians — including Mumbai residents Mohammad Faisal Sheikh, his brother Muzammil Rehman Sheikh and former SIMI Maharashtra general-secretary Ehtesham Siddiqui — are now being tried for their alleged role in the city’s suburban train system, none of the Pakistani perpetrators could be arrested or conclusively identified. Sabahuddin, who allegedly commanded the Lashkar cell that attacked the Indian Institute of Science and a Central Reserve Police Force camp in 2007, worked at the Lashkar’s central offices during 2006-2007. He later became the first—and so far, only—Indian known to have commanded a Lashkar cell involving Pakistani nationals. Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorism Squad is also investigating the possible role of the SIMI’s former general-secretary, Safdar Nagori, in the Mumbai bombings. He was held at Indore last month along with 13 other SIMI leaders who, police allege, were involved in recruiting and training new cadre for the Lashkar-led jihad at camps across southern, central and western India. Questioned after being administered hypnosis-inducing drugs, Nagori said he was present in Mumbai at the time of the bombings—suggesting a possible link between the SIMI’s leadership and the terror strikes. He was known to have participated in a meeting at Ujjain a week before the bombings, where the SIMI discussed plans to escalate the jihad. However, police sources familiar with the investigation said Nagori’s statement has not, so far, been corroborated by material evidence or the confessional statements of close associates, including the Sheikh brothers and Siddiqui. While narco-analysis was a key tool in the bombings investigation, it is known that it elicited fantasies and false statements from several suspects.

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India-Pakistan

New leads emerge on SIMI terror plans

2008-04-02

Students Islamic Movement of India leaders conducted at least three secret combat camps last year, police investigating a group of top SIMI leaders held in Indore believe. New recruits were taught basic jungle-craft, elementary marksmanship with air-rifles and the principles of bomb-making, police sources told The Hindu. SIMI’s leading bomb-maker, Mumbai-based Mohammad Subhan — alleged to have been linked to the perpetrators of the 2003 Gateway of India terror strike — was the principal instructor at the camps. Investigators believe the first of these camps was held in the third week of April, 2007, near Hubli in Karnataka. The camp was organised by SIMI’s south India chief, Hafiz Husain, and Shibli Peedical Abdul, an Idukki-born computer engineer who is alleged to have links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror cell which carried out the 2006 serial bombings in Mumbai. Operating under the code-name ‘Adnan,’ Husain had overseen the large-scale expansion of SIMI’s operations in Karnataka. A resident of Bijapur’s Jamia Road area, Husain ran a network of religious front organisations through which SIMI drew much of its cadre. Abdul, who worked as a computer engineer with a multinational company in Bangalore, was among his key lieutenants. Several of their recruits are thought to have worked with Andhra Pradesh-based Lashkar operative Raziuddin Nasir in an abortive plot to stage bombings targeting western tourists in Goa. Among them was Yahya Kamakutty, a computer engineer drawn to SIMI through SARANI, a front organisation headed by Abdul. Nasir, Kamakutty and several other members of the cell were held in Bangalore last month. Police sources say similar training camps were held by SIMI at Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, in late October, 2007, and then near Kottayam, Kerala, in December, 2007. In each case, front organisations controlled by SIMI made arrangements for the camps, while cadre told their families they were travelling to retreats to further their religious education. Preparations Documents sized at SIMI’s Indore safe-house suggest the training camps could have been preparatory exercises for a programme of continued “selective violence” agreed on at closed-door discussions between top SIMI leaders after the Hubli camp. SIMI planned to contact fraternal organisations, including the Taliban, to seek further resources for its campaign. SIMI’s jihadist leadership also decided to resume publication of three jihadist magazines, Jihad: Fitr-e-Jamhooriyat [‘Jihad: The Commencement of Democracy’] and Aaiye, Jannat ki Sair Karaein [‘Welcome to the Journey Into Paradise’]. Publication of the magazines had been terminated by SIMI’s last president, Shahid Badr Falahi, in an effort to distance the organisation’s leadership from jihadists. At Hubli, SIMI’s leadership sought to outflank anti-jihad Islamists led by Falahi, by abolishing the central committee he controls. The leadership also forbade the organisation from participating in politics and, most important, abolished the age limit for membership — allowing pro-jihad leader Safdar Nagori to remain in the organisation. Nagori, secretary-general of the organisation at the time of its proscription in 2001, was among the 13 SIMI leaders held in Indore last week. Wanted by police in half a dozen States, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi, Nagori — believed to be the principal architect of SIMI’s turning to the jihad — had evaded arrest since 2001.

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