Now Blasts in Ahmedabad: Lashkar Taking jihad to the rest of India

26 July 2008

AHMEDABAD: The first explosion took place in Maninagar, which happens to be Chief Minister Narendra Modi's constituency. The second blast happened in the Sardar Patel Diamond market. The third and fourth blasts took place in Saranpur Bridge and Isanpur. While the first bomb was reportedly planted in a cycle, the other bombs were hidden in tiffin boxes, according to police sources. There were other blasts in Bapu Nagar and Raipur.

Taking jihad to the rest of India

After the October 29, 2005 serial blasts in Delhi, the Delhi police was convinced that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation, was responsible for the multiple acts of terrorism, which killed 63 people and injured hundreds more.

The Mumbai police suspect the Lashkar's hand in the July 11, 2006 serial blasts on Western Railway trains, which killed at least 200 people and injured over 700 others.

The police investigation after the Delhi blasts reveal that the Lashkar continues to grow menacing in the Kashmir valley despite the Indian Army's robust resistance. The Lashkar, a highly secretive organisation, is opposed to the India-Pakistan peace process and is determined to abort it.

rediff.com Managing Editor (National Affairs) Sheela Bhatt obtained exclusive information about the Lashkar's well-funded and well-organised set-up in the Kashmir valley. The Indian Army and other intelligence sources collected this information after hundreds of hours of interrogation of Lashkar terrorists captured in the valley.

http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/nov/15sld1.htm

Rediff.com exclusive feature on The Lashkar-e-Tayiba

Reportage: Sheela Bhatt

Meet the Lashkar super boss

The Lashkar-e-Tayiba's 'Command and Control' structure:

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who lives near Islamabad in Pakistan and operates on both sides of Kashmir, is known amongst his men as 'Tayaji.' He is the Lashkar's super boss and a man of immense resources.

He openly works in the earthquake stricken areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and uses charity as a means to enhance his base.

In the matter of jihad in Kashmir he is ruthless and dangerous. His goal is to merge Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan and his outfit is expanding vertically and horizontally.

Saeed decides how many mujahideen should be sent to the Kashmir valley. Lashkar recruits and trains more men than it actually requires in Kashmir at any given time.

Shabtai Shavit, former director general of Israel's external intelligence agency Mossad, spoke recently about the linkages between Al Qaeda and the Lashkar in the context of the international fight against terrorism.

Pakistan expert and rediff.com columnist B Raman, who keeps a close watch on the Lashkar, feels, "It is as dangerous as Al Qaeda."

"It is a pan-Islamic terrorist organisation, which is the most important member of the International Islamic Front after Al Qaeda. It describes J&K as the gateway to India and after 'liberating' J&K, it wants to 'liberate' Muslims in the rest of India," adds Raman.

"It is under close surveillance by Western countries and Australia," says Raman, who has served at India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing. "Its involvement in the Delhi blasts, if proved, would be an indicator of its determination to spread jihadi activities in other parts of India."

Since 9/11, sleeper cells or secret members/associates of Lashkar have been detected in many countries including Australia, Singapore, the United States and France. The international intelligence and security communities have been taking increasing notice of its activities and its implications, Raman adds.

http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/nov/15sld2.htm

Saeed's point man in the Kashmir valley

Saeed's point man on the Indian side of Kashmir is Zia-ur Rehman Lakhvi alias Chachaji.

Lakhvi is the Lashkar supreme commander in Kashmir. He normally operates out of the Anantnag area in south Kashmir and keeps crossing the Line of Control using the difficult terrain to dodge the Indian Army.

Lashkar terrorists are experts at finding gaps along the LoC. As soon as fences are erected along the border these terrorists find low-cost ways to overcome hurdles created by the costly fencing.

Lakhvi and some Lashkar operatives also use the Nepal route. People who have met Lakhvi say, "He kills without remorse. He is an Inter Services Intelligence-trained Kashmiri working in India with great success."

The foot soldiers

Lashkar has two dozen division commanders and area commanders. Below them are the battalion commanders.

According to a reliable estimate more than 1,000 foot soldiers work under the battalion commanders.

Lashkar's Kashmir leadership has some four to five Pakistanis. Nearly 80 percent of the foot soldiers are foreigners known by security agencies as 'FT' (foreign terrorists).

Although counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir are low profile, Indian agents have penetrated the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and discovered many weakness that can be exploited.

Kari-Saif-ul-Rehman, Hyder Ekrar and others are known to have a fondness for women. But they are, without exception, highly motivated. Abdul Hasan, Lashkar's south division commander, is profiled by security agencies as a god-fearing terrorist who behaves like 'a gentleman.' All are pro-Pakistan and produce identical statements when arrested.

The identity of Hyder Ekrar, Lashkar's leader in Bandipora, is doubtful. He is most likely a Pakistani and reportedly lives like a king. He has been nicknamed Charlie One by Indian agents. Ekrar is one of the brains behind the December 13, 2001attack on the Indian Parliament. Abu Rafi, Lashkar's deputy district commander in Baramulla, managed the finances for the attack.

Linkages with other terror organisations

A few Kashmiri women are used by Lashkar for the limited purpose of transferring weapons, money and messages.

In Srinagar, Al Mansurian operates along with the Lashkar, while south Kashmir is Al Badar territory.

In north Kashmir, the Hizbul Mujahideen shares space with Lashkar.

An intelligence officer who has prepared dossiers on many Lashkar members claims that each battalion in Kashmir has around 60 to 70 terrorists.

In the last few years Baluchis, Afghans and Pakistanis from the North West Frontier Province have joined Lashkar battalions. Most area and district commanders have 'a lot of money and the best women' and have many hideouts in the Kashmir valley.

The Lashkar is alive and thriving in Kashmir because Hafiz Saeed remains untouched by the Pakistani government. The more funds he gets from Pakistan and the ISI, the more resourceful Zia-ur Rehman Lakhvi becomes in his task of spreading terror in India.

Image: A grenade hurled at an Indian army patrol, being defused by a bomb disposal squad at Srinagar's Lal Chowk, the hub of business activity in the city.

The deputies

Lakhvi's deputy supreme commander is A B Rehman-ur Dakhil. He manages the Lashkar's finances. His network is complex and he uses the hawala and banking system to Lashkar's advantage.

Dakhil normally lives in and around Srinagar. Lakhvi and Dakhil's ages are not known, but both men are said to be below 50.

Abdul A H Shehzad alias Abu Anas alias Shamas is Lashkar's chief commander, operations. He is well educated, highly motivated and has the capacity to carry out huge destructive operations. He operates from the Bandipura and Sopore areas. He will be a prize catch for Indian security agencies as he has an amazing amount of information about Lashkar

The Rediff Special/Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad

July 19, 2004

I would like to meet Bachubhai whose son was killed in Kashmir," I request the elderly lady facing me.

I am at the door of a modest two-room dwelling in Damarwali chawl, located in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad, the old part of the city.

 She looks me over before letting me in and offering me a chair. "He is not in," she says, "He will come soon. I am his wife. Tell me what do you want?"

I tell her I have information from the state home ministry about a Gujarati boy named Ayub Bachubhai who had become a jihadi. I was told he was killed in Jammu and Kashmir and that the Intelligence Bureau had identified his dead body before he was buried somewhere in Jammu and Kashmir along the border.

I was also told that Ayub's family has received a letter from the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation, informing them about his death. [The letters are in Urdu and one in Gujarati]

The lady is Nyanat, Ayub's mother. A big-built lady with sharp features and a commanding presence, she is a Rajasthani Muslim who has settled down in Ahmedabad. Her husband Bachubhai was born in Ahmedabad. She has eight daughters, including one who was adopted recently, and two sons, of whom the elder was Ayub. Inside the house are her younger son Salim and two adult daughters, sewing school uniforms. They are trained tailors, their mother tells me.

The adjoining room has a well-set kitchen. Though living in a chawl, the kitchen appears well stocked with a refrigerator and other kitchen accessories.

 Before I can ask any question she tells me in Marwari-accented Hindi that her son Ayub is alive. But she adds that the family has no clue about Ayub ever since he left home in August 2002. The sisters tell me they have full faith in Allah that he is fine.

Nyanat starts sobbing when I ask her about her son. Over the next three hours, amid much sobbing, she narrates her tale of woe:

"MY son is a friendly person. My husband is a retired building contractor who built this chawl with about 80 rooms. My family and my husband's brother have four, five rooms. The rest are rented out at very low rates to Dalits. Except for our four families, all our neighbours are Hindus. In 2002, when riots broke out after Godhra, my husband and I were in our native village in Rajasthan but my children were here. In our chawl, we are respected by our Hindu neighbours and we never had any communal trouble. We are all peace loving.

"My son has few Muslim friends. He has mostly Hindus friends from Meghani Nagar where he was working. When riots went on for a long time, our neighbours advised my children to shift to a safer area. My son Ayub rented a room in the municipal quarters at Mahendikua, a Muslim-majority area. The room belong to Yusuf Khan, who has a brother, also named Ayub.

"Ayub Khan ran a garage while my son Ayub worked in a lawyer's office. We don't know what happened between them but one day, when my daughters were sewing in the morning and Ayub was getting ready to go to his office, Ayub Khan came looking for my son. It was around 11 am on a weekday in August 2002. Ayub Khan told my son to pack his bags to go to Kashmir. Earlier too, Khan had come twice to our house, inquiring about my son.

"At this time, we were still in Rajasthan. My son told his sister Naseem that he was going to Kashmir with Ayub Khan for six to seven weeks on an assignment. He said he would get Rs 5,000. Since the riots had affected our finances severely, he accepted the assignment.

"After some time, I came back from Rajasthan. When Ayub didn't return in seven weeks, we started worrying. My younger son kept going to Ayub Khan who kept saying he would return soon. We were petrified of our son becoming a jihadi. He was just not that type. Khan told my other son Salim that Ayub is fine and there is no reason to worry. He was told he has gone to deliver bananas and would come back with truck full of apples.

"When we mounted heavy pressure on him, he said Ayub has sent some money and he gave Salim Rs 4,000 and a letter returned by him.

"We went to the rented place where Ayub and Yusuf live. Yusuf's wife Sabiya took us to Ayub's father-in-law, Abdul Latif Kashmiri alias Kashmiri Lala, who lives in Vatva [a suburb of Ahmedabad]. I told him to get my son back from Kashmir.

 "Initially, he said he was unaware of my son's whereabouts but later agreed to bring him back on his next trip to Poonch in Kashmir. Lala is a native of Kashmir. His first wife and family live in Poonch [in Jammu]. He is also married to a lady in Ahmedabad and settled here.

"I curse him and his jamai (son-in-law, viz Ayub Khan) every day. They have snatched away my son for money. They have sold him for Rs 1 lakh to the militants," she alleges.

"It is a trying time for us. I have eight daughters. My husband is 65 years old. We are not getting suitable boys for my daughters in our community. We never marry our daughters into other Muslim communities. I have no idea what will happen to my family.

"SABIYA (Yusuf Khan's wife) told us that her cousin (her maternal uncle's son), Assadullah Kalyani, was also sent to Kashmir by Ayub Khan. At that time, Ayub Khan did not know that Kalyani was Sabiya's cousin.

 "Kalyani, who lives in the Khanpur locality in Ahmedabad, escaped from the militants and returned home. He was probably trained in the use of arms and was kept with my son Ayub in the Kashmir jungles. But after three months, they were separated. He told us they were always kept on the mountains peaks and were never allowed to come down the hills.

"Kalyani told us when my Ayub heard on the radio about the attack on the Akshardham temple (on September 24, 2002) he came down from the hills. He wanted to go home but he was not allowed. Kalyani told us he was worried about his sisters.

"It was after Kalyani revealed his story to the Gujarat police that Ayub Khan and Kashmiri Lala were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act. It was only then that we came to know of their plans to lure Muslim boys from Gujarat to Kashmir.

"Kalyani told us that five Gujarati Muslim boys accompanied him to Kashmir. They too had been recruited by Ayub Khan and Lala, both of who came to see them off at the railway station. All the boys were told they would be employed in the transport business.

"We are not aware about what all happened in Kashmir but we know for sure that Kalyani and Guddo Ansari, who is also from Ahmedabad, went to Kashmir with my son. But they have returned. They were arrested by the police and kept in jail for two or three months. They were treated well. They have told everything to the police and have been released. They are happily settled again, leading a normal life.

"Unlike these two Gujaratis, my son could not escape the militants because they claim he was sent to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. I kept visiting Lala. He would only keep saying that after the snow melts, he would get back my son from Kashmir. After Kashmiri Lala's arrest, I kept meeting his wife Shamshad and her daughter Mehjabin. I would cry and plead, 'Mera chokra la kar de' (Bring back my son).

"In our community and in my neighbourhood I haven't hid the fact that my son is missing. Our neighbours understand our pain. But don't take my pictures. In the next riots, we may be targeted. Outsiders can identify us and target us because they would say 'Iska chokra Kashmir bhag gaya' (Her son ran away to Kashmir).

"Kalyani, who has escaped the militants' clutches, knows everything. At one point, Shamshad promised me she would go to Kashmir and get my son back. She went to Kashmir but returned without my son. They entertained us for some time but three months back she refused to heed my pleas.

"A few months ago, I received a mail from Oman. The address was Post Box 1630, Jabro Matrah, Sultanate of Oman. The short mail said, 'Mera beta shahid ho gaya hai' (My son has become a martyr).

 "We cried and cried, but we don't believe this mail. We called up the police and told them about it. They asked us some questions.

 "I have visited many astrologers and even religious figures from the Dalit community. All of them have assured me that my son is alive and will come back. He can't become a jihadi.

"The Gujarat police only harass jihadis or Muslims who are against our society. They have released Kalyani and Guddo. We are sure that my son will not be harassed if he tells the truth to the police. Many people have insisted I should do fatia (the final rites) of Ayub, but I have said a firm no. Ma ka dil kaheta hai voh jinda hai! (A mother's heart says he is alive!)."

 LATER, to convince me about Kashmiri Lala's involvement in sending her son to Kashmir, Nyanat takes me to Sabiya's home. Sabiya confirms she had taken Nyanat to Kashmiri Lala. She also confirms that her cousin Kalyani has returned to Gujarat from Kashmir.

Kalyani's parents refuse to allow him to talk to me while Guddo Ansari is not available when I visit his home. His family also confirms he has returned from Kashmir.

The Rediff Special/Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad

 How Gujarat plans to counter terrorists

July 15, 2004

Having come to the conclusion that the state is becoming a haven for terrorists, the Gujarat government has drawn up a counter-terrorism action plan, which traces its origins to the murder of former state home minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Haren Pandya.

Pandya's murder in Ahmedabad, in broad daylight last year, opened the eyes of the Narendra Modi government to the possibility that the state had become an operating ground for terrorist organisations like the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Investigations revealed that Mufti Sufiyan, head of the Zakaria Masjid in Ahmedabad and prime accused in the Pandya murder case, had allegedly been luring unemployed and poor youth into his fold. He allegedly sent some of them to Pakistan via Dhaka for arms training.

He was exposed when a few youngsters changed their mind and escaped en route to Pakistan. They then went to the police. Mufti fled to Dhaka.

The state police also discovered that some Islamic organisations in the state obtained funds from the Gulf, routed through religious organisations based in Akkalkua, Maharashtra.

Another trend was that most of the accused in terrorism-related cases in Gujarat belonged to the Tablighi Jamaat, a conservative Islamic organisation, a senior home ministry official said.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jul/19spec1.htm

These developments convinced the Gujarat police that it needed a clear plan to counter terrorists. The state government then set up a team of senior Indian Police Service officers led by Additional Director General of Police (CID, Crime) Kuldip Sharma to conceive an agenda to combat terrorism.

The team reportedly studied more than 6,000 First Information Reports related to terrorism-related activities filed in Gujarat and other states, the constitution of more than 130 Islamic organisations and referred to many books before coming up with an action plan.

Among the information the team came across was that out of 102,346 masjids in India, 1,825 are located in Gujarat. An overwhelming number had sprung up in the last decade. Out of 49,612 madrassas in India, 3,173 are located in Gujarat.

The police observed that many towns in Gujarat that experience communal tension have outsiders as the imams (priests) and religious teachers (at the madrassas). They were often found to hold radical views.

A senior police officer in Gandhinagar told rediff.com that the plan suggests a list of things that every policeman from the constable level upwards must do to keep the police force abreast of the situation at the ground level and one step ahead of the terrorists. One of them is to keep tabs on meetings at masjids and sermons made by members of the Tablighi Jamaat in the state.

"The plan is going to be a trend-setter in India with respect to tackling terrorist activities," a source in the state's home ministry said, adding, "After the communal riots in 2002, Gujarat has become vulnerable. Gujarat Chief Minister) Narendra Modi faces the biggest threat from Islamic terrorists. We have taken the challenge seriously."

Already, the Gujarat police has foiled four attempts on the chief minister's life. Eleven terrorists have been arrested or killed. In each case, locals had provided logistical support.

Once the plan is implemented, the government hopes to nip emerging problems in the bud and deny terrorists a free run of the state. 

Source: rediff.com

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/now-blasts-ahmedabad-lashkar-taking/d/312