MHA confirms local outfits behind terror
Investigations so far into the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts point to the involvement of local terror outfits.
By ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: Investigations so far into the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts point to the involvement of local terror outfits, senior MHA officials confirmed on Tuesday even as they did not rule a foreign mastermind.
The blasts, an official pointed out, were most possibly the handiwork of local outfits who seem to have assembled the bombs and executed the attacks. Conceding that not much had been found by agencies on the organisation structure and cadre of ���Indian Mujahideen���, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, the MHA official said it could only be a loose grouping of cadre from Simi and Bangladeshi outfit HuJI.
MHA, meanwhile, is seized of the inter-state ramifications of the terror attack. With investigations confirming the use of cars stolen from Navi Mumbai as well as the misuse of non-secure WiFI network installed at a Navi Mumbai flat to send the terror e-mail just ahead of the Ahmedabad blasts, the involvement of Simi cadre from Maharashtra has come under the scrutiny of the security agencies.
Senior MHA officials have already brainstormed on the inter-state terror linkages of the latest blasts by holding a conference of officials from all blasts-hit states, including Rajasthan and Maharashtra, over the last two days in Ahmedabad. Aimed at facilitating a free exchange of terror database by the states concerned, the exercise is an attempt to expedite investigation into terror attacks.
The Maharashtra link to the Gujarat blasts is only strengthened by the contents of the terror e-mail sent out in the name of ���Indian Mujahideen��� just ahead of the Ahmedabad explosions. It specifically warns of attacks on chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and home minister R R Patil to avenge ���state reserve police force attacks on our masjids and our homes, the insult of our Quran and your enmity with the Muslims in Digras and the nearby areas of Yavatmal and the burning alive of three Muslims in Jalna with the backing of police.��� A reference is also made to the troubles faced by madarsa students and Muslim women in Western Railways.
For fundamentalists in Maharashtra, Gujarat attacks are a clear revenge against the 2002 post-Godhra riots. They had earlier tasted failure in attacking Gujarat when intelligence inputs helped Maharashtra police seize around 2 dozens packets of RDX, assault rifles and ammunition in a raid in 2006. The module was busted but its head, Simi operative Zabiuddin Ansari, managed to give the police a slip.
In yet another unsuccessful operation, a bomb planted on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad express in February 2006 failed to go off during its running time.
Earlier, in 2004, two LeT terrorists who had come to Gujarat to avenge the post-Godhra riots were killed in an Ahmedabad encounter along with Simi activist Javed Sheikh and his partner Ishrat Jahan. Sohail Mohammad Sheikh and Zamir Ahmed Latif Chaabiwala, arrested by the Mumbai police last year, disclosed during their interrogation LeT���s plans to assassinate Gujarat police officers for their alleged role in the riots.
The blasts, an official pointed out, were most possibly the handiwork of local outfits who seem to have assembled the bombs and executed the attacks. Conceding that not much had been found by agencies on the organisation structure and cadre of ���Indian Mujahideen���, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, the MHA official said it could only be a loose grouping of cadre from Simi and Bangladeshi outfit HuJI.
MHA, meanwhile, is seized of the inter-state ramifications of the terror attack. With investigations confirming the use of cars stolen from Navi Mumbai as well as the misuse of non-secure WiFI network installed at a Navi Mumbai flat to send the terror e-mail just ahead of the Ahmedabad blasts, the involvement of Simi cadre from Maharashtra has come under the scrutiny of the security agencies.
Senior MHA officials have already brainstormed on the inter-state terror linkages of the latest blasts by holding a conference of officials from all blasts-hit states, including Rajasthan and Maharashtra, over the last two days in Ahmedabad. Aimed at facilitating a free exchange of terror database by the states concerned, the exercise is an attempt to expedite investigation into terror attacks.
The Maharashtra link to the Gujarat blasts is only strengthened by the contents of the terror e-mail sent out in the name of ���Indian Mujahideen��� just ahead of the Ahmedabad explosions. It specifically warns of attacks on chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and home minister R R Patil to avenge ���state reserve police force attacks on our masjids and our homes, the insult of our Quran and your enmity with the Muslims in Digras and the nearby areas of Yavatmal and the burning alive of three Muslims in Jalna with the backing of police.��� A reference is also made to the troubles faced by madarsa students and Muslim women in Western Railways.
For fundamentalists in Maharashtra, Gujarat attacks are a clear revenge against the 2002 post-Godhra riots. They had earlier tasted failure in attacking Gujarat when intelligence inputs helped Maharashtra police seize around 2 dozens packets of RDX, assault rifles and ammunition in a raid in 2006. The module was busted but its head, Simi operative Zabiuddin Ansari, managed to give the police a slip.
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In yet another unsuccessful operation, a bomb planted on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad express in February 2006 failed to go off during its running time.
Earlier, in 2004, two LeT terrorists who had come to Gujarat to avenge the post-Godhra riots were killed in an Ahmedabad encounter along with Simi activist Javed Sheikh and his partner Ishrat Jahan. Sohail Mohammad Sheikh and Zamir Ahmed Latif Chaabiwala, arrested by the Mumbai police last year, disclosed during their interrogation LeT���s plans to assassinate Gujarat police officers for their alleged role in the riots.
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