fter His Training Across The Border, Accused Faisal Shaikh Got Himself Deported From Saudi To Reach Mumbai Again
Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: It was in 2004 that Faisal Shaikh, the alleged bomber responsible for the explosion on a local train at Jogeshwari railway station on July 11 first found his way into police records.
Shaikh was deported from Saudi Arabia in 2004 for ‘illegal stay’ and his arrival in Mumbai was recorded by the police.
Faisal had gone to Saudi Arabia and after a three-day stay left for Pakistan’s Bahawalpur camp
for training in 2004. “I didn’t want to come to India and wanted to stay in Pakistan and prove my allegiance to Muslims. But my trainers told me that if I wanted to prove my loyalty then I should go back to India and avenge the killing of Muslims in hundreds of riots across India,’’ Faisal is believed to have told the police after his arrest on July 28, 2006.
After completing the six-monthlong training, he returned to Saudi Arabia where he stayed in a threestar hotel. However, he was scared of returning to India since a Pakistan visa was stamped on his passport, proving his visit there. On advice from a friend, Faisal burnt his passport and approached a local police station in Jeddah where he complained that his passport was missing.
The police realised that he had destroyed his passport and was staying there illegally. He was arrested. The Saudi police sends a list of all the arrested accused to the concerned embassies every week. A delegation from the embassies, including the Indian embassy, also visits such jails once or twice month to ascertain facts.
If the arrested persons are not involved in any crime in Saudi Arabia, they are deported to their respective countries, said a source. Faisal had used the same modus operandi to come back to India.
“He was deported and the police did not suspect that the deported man was a trained Lashkar-e-Taiba operative,’’ said police commissioner A N Roy.
Faisal’s father Ataur Rehman worked as an automobile mechanic in the Gulf and returned in 1996. Faisal studied in a Malegaon school and completed his higher secondary education from Maharashtra College at Mumbai Central.
Later, he along with his parents moved to Pune in 1996 after they sold their Temkar street room at Nagpada. In Pune, he befriended Sohail Shaikh, who has also been arrested by the police in the case. In 2001, the Shaikhs returned to Mumbai and bought a huge flat in Mira Road, police sources said.
Faisal’s eldest brother Raheel went to London and works in a multi-national company. After an argument with his family members, Faisal left home and stayed alone in different places alone, the last being at Bandra.
Faisal first visited a training camp in Pakistan in 2002. However, the police is yet to find out who had sent Faisal for the training in 2002 through the Wagah border.
“He is tightlipped and doesn’t say anything about the middle man,’’ a senior officer said. After returning from training, he also sent his younger brother Muzammil and friends Zameer Shaikh, Dr Tanvir and Pune-based Sohail Shaikh there, sources said.
The Times of India, October 3, 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment