10-01-2006, 06:21 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Pak's napak game</b>
T N Raghunatha | Mumbai
The Pioneer
October 1, 2006
*11 men crossed border to blow up Mumbai
*Mumbai Police crack 7/11 blasts to last detail
After 10-week-long painstaking investigations into what they initially perceived
as "blinder of a case", the Mumbai Police have ripped the lid off the sinister
7/11 serial blasts' plot masterminded by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) and executed by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), with the help of outlawed SIMI and
Jaish-e-Mohammed.  Â
Though it had been known for some time that the blast plot was hatched in
Pakistan, the Mumbai Police on Saturday came out with a shocking revelation
that Pakistan's State-run Intelligence agency was the brain behind the
dastardly act, which claimed 187 lives and left over 700 others injured. While
details of the plan brought out by the investigation establish Pakistan's role
beyond doubt, they also point to Mumbai Police's efficiency.
(A PTI report from Islamabad said that Pakistan had termed the findings baseless
and fabricated.)
The ISI may have drawn up a diabolical blast plot to cripple the country's
financial capital and unnerve Mumbaikars for the second time after the March
12, 1993 serial bomb blasts, but it was LeT which executed the plan, as Mumbai
Police Commissioner A N Roy conceded: "In a most professional, precise and
well-planned manner".
Lashkar-e-Toiba, which had begun its preparation to execute 7/11 blasts as early
as March this year, had chosen Azam Cheema for the job. It was this senior ISI
operative and the highly-placed Bawahalpur-based LeT commander, who handpicked recruits to carry out the job. "Cheema trained a majority of those involved in the blasts," Roy said. Police sources said that it was Cheema, who did most of the planning that went into the execution of the blasts.
The extent of Pakistan's involvement in the 7/11 blasts can be gauged from the
fact that as many as 11 Pakistanis - who sneaked into India through three
international borders - worked hand in hand with around 20 local operatives. Of
the 11 Pakistani terrorists, one died in the blasts, while another succumbed to
bullets in a police encounter. The remaining nine Pakistanis have either fled
the country or are at large within the country.
Severe flak notwithstanding, they received from various quarters, including the
media, for the "tardy probe" in the seven powerful explosions that ripped
first-class compartments in equal number of north-Mumbai bound suburban locals
on July 11, 2006, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and crime branch sleuths of
the Mumbai police cracked the "quite complicated" case in a relatively short
period of one and half months.
"It was a blinder of a case for us. Such was the precision with which the
attackers had carried out the task that we were left with no clues at any of
the blast sites to work upon. It was our scientific approach and the assistance
from the technical team that took us where we are today. Now we have enough
evidence to take the case to a logical conclusion during the trial," Roy said
on Saturday afternoon, he addressed the media along with State DGP Dr P S
Pasricha and ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi.
According to Roy, the ATS chanced upon its first outside clue, when it came to
know a person from Navi Mumbai had been repeatedly trying to make a telephone
call to a place along the Indo-Nepal border. Following this, the police
arrested prime suspect Kamaluddin Ansari from Madhubani in Bihar. "Before long,
we had other suspects in our net. But, the problem lay in mustering evidence to
substantiate our charges against them, Roy said.
The ATS, which had set up seven separate teams to investigate the seven blasts
and two technical research teams to supplement their efforts, rounded off
investigations on Friday night, with the arrest of a suspected bomber (Khar
blast) Naved from Hyderabad. Earlier on Friday, the ATS had arrested four blast
suspects - three from Mumbai and one from Kolkata, after prolonged questioning
of other 7/11 blast accused already in the police custody.
Together with the arrests made on Friday, the ATS has currently in its custody
15 suspects, of whom 12 are "directly involved". These 12 include four persons
who planted explosives in Jogeshwari, Matunga, Mira Road and Khar blasts.Roy
went on to add: "We are looking out for at least five more suspects, of whom we
are close to arresting one. We can say now, we have solved the case, but we will
carry on with our investigations".
According to Roy, the main players behind the blasts are Faizal Sheikh,
Kamaluddin Ansari and Ehtasham Siddiqui. While Faisal Shaikh is a resident of
Mira Road, Kamaluddin Ansari was arrested from the Madhubani district of
Bihar.
Ethesham Siddiqui, is the Maharashtra unit general secretary of SIMI. It was
from Faisal that 26,000 Saudi riyal were seized and he confessed to the police
during the interrogation that during the last four to five years he had
received nearly Rs 60 lakh.
Faizal used to get money from one Saudi Arabia-based Rizwan Davare, who used to get the money from Lashkar operatives in Pakistan and channel it to India
through hawala routes.
Of the 11 Pakistani who sneaked into India and took active part in engineering
the blasts, two of them came entered from Nepal on May 25 with the help of
Kamaluddin. While five others had smuggled themselves into India through
Bangladesh border, another four entered India through Gujarat border. On their
arrival in India, they stayed at Malad, Borivli-East, Mumbra, all rented flats,
and at Bandra residence of Faisal.
One of the Pakistanis, Salim was killed in the blast at Khar. "His body was
found between Khar and Bandra stations soon after the blasts. He would also
have escaped had he got down from the train before the blast.
May be he could not do so because of the peak hour crowd inside the train or he
did not know the topography of Mumbai well," Roy said. Another Pakistani,
Mohammed Ali alias Abu Umed alias Abu Osama, was killed during an encounter
with the sleuths of ATS at Antop Hill. Rest of them, whom Roy refused to name,
may have either fled to Pakistan or "are still in the country."
Dwelling on the modus operandi used in executing the blasts, Roy said that one
Eshamullah, a Pakistani, had brought nearly 15 to 20 kg of RDX from Pakistan
for use in the blasts.
<b>How They Got To The Bottom Of It</b>
# LeT begins preparation to execute 7/11 in March
# ISI operative Azam Cheema and the highly-placed Bawahalpur-based LeT commander
train local modules
# 11 Pakistanis sneak into India through Gujarat, Bangladesh & Nepal-Bihar
borders.
# Telephone call from Navi Mumbai to a place along the Indo-Nepal border gives
the first clue, leading to a vital arrest in Madhubani
# One Pak terrorist killed in train blast, another in police encounter
# Body of Pak terrorist reconstructed & DNA done. Body still with cops
# Police looking for five more suspects
# Nearly 20 kg of RDX brought from Pakistan
# Local modules visited Pak and get training several times
# One Pakistani accompanied every local module to plant bomb in seven trains
# Police deny link between 7/11 and 9/11. Al-Qaeda had no role in 7/11 blasts
# Fast-track court to try 7/11 accused
<b>The Deadly 15</b>
# Faisal-Ata-ur-Rehman Shaikh (bomber-Jogeshwari)
# Mohammed Kamaluddin Ansari (bomber-Matunga)
# Etesham Siddqui (bomber -Mira Road)
# Naved (bomber -Khar)
# Khaleel Ahmead Shaikh
# Maulana Mumtaz
# Mujjamil Ata-ur-Rehman Shaikh
# Tanvir Ahmed Ansari
# Jamir Chaviwala
# Sohail Shaikh
# Akmal Hashmi
# Mohammed Shafi
# Mohammed Shaikh
# Abdul Wahiuddin
# Moahmmed Majid
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
T N Raghunatha | Mumbai
The Pioneer
October 1, 2006
*11 men crossed border to blow up Mumbai
*Mumbai Police crack 7/11 blasts to last detail
After 10-week-long painstaking investigations into what they initially perceived
as "blinder of a case", the Mumbai Police have ripped the lid off the sinister
7/11 serial blasts' plot masterminded by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) and executed by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), with the help of outlawed SIMI and
Jaish-e-Mohammed.  Â
Though it had been known for some time that the blast plot was hatched in
Pakistan, the Mumbai Police on Saturday came out with a shocking revelation
that Pakistan's State-run Intelligence agency was the brain behind the
dastardly act, which claimed 187 lives and left over 700 others injured. While
details of the plan brought out by the investigation establish Pakistan's role
beyond doubt, they also point to Mumbai Police's efficiency.
(A PTI report from Islamabad said that Pakistan had termed the findings baseless
and fabricated.)
The ISI may have drawn up a diabolical blast plot to cripple the country's
financial capital and unnerve Mumbaikars for the second time after the March
12, 1993 serial bomb blasts, but it was LeT which executed the plan, as Mumbai
Police Commissioner A N Roy conceded: "In a most professional, precise and
well-planned manner".
Lashkar-e-Toiba, which had begun its preparation to execute 7/11 blasts as early
as March this year, had chosen Azam Cheema for the job. It was this senior ISI
operative and the highly-placed Bawahalpur-based LeT commander, who handpicked recruits to carry out the job. "Cheema trained a majority of those involved in the blasts," Roy said. Police sources said that it was Cheema, who did most of the planning that went into the execution of the blasts.
The extent of Pakistan's involvement in the 7/11 blasts can be gauged from the
fact that as many as 11 Pakistanis - who sneaked into India through three
international borders - worked hand in hand with around 20 local operatives. Of
the 11 Pakistani terrorists, one died in the blasts, while another succumbed to
bullets in a police encounter. The remaining nine Pakistanis have either fled
the country or are at large within the country.
Severe flak notwithstanding, they received from various quarters, including the
media, for the "tardy probe" in the seven powerful explosions that ripped
first-class compartments in equal number of north-Mumbai bound suburban locals
on July 11, 2006, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and crime branch sleuths of
the Mumbai police cracked the "quite complicated" case in a relatively short
period of one and half months.
"It was a blinder of a case for us. Such was the precision with which the
attackers had carried out the task that we were left with no clues at any of
the blast sites to work upon. It was our scientific approach and the assistance
from the technical team that took us where we are today. Now we have enough
evidence to take the case to a logical conclusion during the trial," Roy said
on Saturday afternoon, he addressed the media along with State DGP Dr P S
Pasricha and ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi.
According to Roy, the ATS chanced upon its first outside clue, when it came to
know a person from Navi Mumbai had been repeatedly trying to make a telephone
call to a place along the Indo-Nepal border. Following this, the police
arrested prime suspect Kamaluddin Ansari from Madhubani in Bihar. "Before long,
we had other suspects in our net. But, the problem lay in mustering evidence to
substantiate our charges against them, Roy said.
The ATS, which had set up seven separate teams to investigate the seven blasts
and two technical research teams to supplement their efforts, rounded off
investigations on Friday night, with the arrest of a suspected bomber (Khar
blast) Naved from Hyderabad. Earlier on Friday, the ATS had arrested four blast
suspects - three from Mumbai and one from Kolkata, after prolonged questioning
of other 7/11 blast accused already in the police custody.
Together with the arrests made on Friday, the ATS has currently in its custody
15 suspects, of whom 12 are "directly involved". These 12 include four persons
who planted explosives in Jogeshwari, Matunga, Mira Road and Khar blasts.Roy
went on to add: "We are looking out for at least five more suspects, of whom we
are close to arresting one. We can say now, we have solved the case, but we will
carry on with our investigations".
According to Roy, the main players behind the blasts are Faizal Sheikh,
Kamaluddin Ansari and Ehtasham Siddiqui. While Faisal Shaikh is a resident of
Mira Road, Kamaluddin Ansari was arrested from the Madhubani district of
Bihar.
Ethesham Siddiqui, is the Maharashtra unit general secretary of SIMI. It was
from Faisal that 26,000 Saudi riyal were seized and he confessed to the police
during the interrogation that during the last four to five years he had
received nearly Rs 60 lakh.
Faizal used to get money from one Saudi Arabia-based Rizwan Davare, who used to get the money from Lashkar operatives in Pakistan and channel it to India
through hawala routes.
Of the 11 Pakistani who sneaked into India and took active part in engineering
the blasts, two of them came entered from Nepal on May 25 with the help of
Kamaluddin. While five others had smuggled themselves into India through
Bangladesh border, another four entered India through Gujarat border. On their
arrival in India, they stayed at Malad, Borivli-East, Mumbra, all rented flats,
and at Bandra residence of Faisal.
One of the Pakistanis, Salim was killed in the blast at Khar. "His body was
found between Khar and Bandra stations soon after the blasts. He would also
have escaped had he got down from the train before the blast.
May be he could not do so because of the peak hour crowd inside the train or he
did not know the topography of Mumbai well," Roy said. Another Pakistani,
Mohammed Ali alias Abu Umed alias Abu Osama, was killed during an encounter
with the sleuths of ATS at Antop Hill. Rest of them, whom Roy refused to name,
may have either fled to Pakistan or "are still in the country."
Dwelling on the modus operandi used in executing the blasts, Roy said that one
Eshamullah, a Pakistani, had brought nearly 15 to 20 kg of RDX from Pakistan
for use in the blasts.
<b>How They Got To The Bottom Of It</b>
# LeT begins preparation to execute 7/11 in March
# ISI operative Azam Cheema and the highly-placed Bawahalpur-based LeT commander
train local modules
# 11 Pakistanis sneak into India through Gujarat, Bangladesh & Nepal-Bihar
borders.
# Telephone call from Navi Mumbai to a place along the Indo-Nepal border gives
the first clue, leading to a vital arrest in Madhubani
# One Pak terrorist killed in train blast, another in police encounter
# Body of Pak terrorist reconstructed & DNA done. Body still with cops
# Police looking for five more suspects
# Nearly 20 kg of RDX brought from Pakistan
# Local modules visited Pak and get training several times
# One Pakistani accompanied every local module to plant bomb in seven trains
# Police deny link between 7/11 and 9/11. Al-Qaeda had no role in 7/11 blasts
# Fast-track court to try 7/11 accused
<b>The Deadly 15</b>
# Faisal-Ata-ur-Rehman Shaikh (bomber-Jogeshwari)
# Mohammed Kamaluddin Ansari (bomber-Matunga)
# Etesham Siddqui (bomber -Mira Road)
# Naved (bomber -Khar)
# Khaleel Ahmead Shaikh
# Maulana Mumtaz
# Mujjamil Ata-ur-Rehman Shaikh
# Tanvir Ahmed Ansari
# Jamir Chaviwala
# Sohail Shaikh
# Akmal Hashmi
# Mohammed Shafi
# Mohammed Shaikh
# Abdul Wahiuddin
# Moahmmed Majid
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->