How ATS revealed too much, lost vital intelligence link

NEW DELHI: Mumbai ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi’s enthusiasm of revealing too much about the Pakistani link of the terror suspects arrested on Saturday has prompted the link to go off the interception radar of the central intelligence agencies, prompting an irritated MHA to rap the Maharashtra police on Monday.

The Union home ministry conveyed its displeasure to the Maharashtra ATS for briefing the media out of turn at the cost of compromising the investigations. “We lost Uncle...Chachaji is no more,” complained a senior home ministry official on Monday after ATS revelation of the arrested Mumbai residents, Abdul Latif and Riyaz Ali, being in touch with a Pakistan-based “Chacha” (Uncle) led the latter to go silent on interceptions being monitored by the security agencies. The Union home ministry official described the revelation as a “hit on the head for us.”

Mr Raghuvanshi, while announcing the arrests of Latif and Riyaz on Sunday, had told the media that they were in touch with a person in Pakistan identified as Chacha to execute terror acts here. This was even as the communications lines with the Pakistani link were still under interception by the agencies for further leads to bust more terror links or modules. These lines have gone silent post the media briefing by the ATS chief.

Latif and Riyaz Ali, residents of Bandra and Dahisar respectively, were arrested by ATS on March 13 near Matunga railway station. They were allegedly tasked with carrying out terror strikes at an ONGC facility in Mumbai, besides Thakkar Mall in Borivali and Mangaldas Market in south Mumbai.

As for the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, Bashir Ahmed Baba alias Pepsi Bomber, arrested in Ahmedabad, the agencies suspect that he was essentially recruiting locals to be drafted into jihadi terror under the ISI’s Karachi Project. The project is a clever gameplan of the ISI and terror outfits to recruit Indian youth, sent them across to Pakistan for terror training by serving and retired Pakistani Army officers, and then push them back into India to carry out terror acts.

The home ministry official said that the arrests would force the terrorist modules holed up in the country to lie low for some time and postpone any immediate strike plans. Though this gives the agencies some breathing time, the official said the terror alerts issued last week to the urban centres — including Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Kochi — still stand.

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