Faheem aide had 3 email IDs for Bangalore attack

Faheem Ansari

Mateen Hafeez I TNN

Mumbai: Sabahuddin Ahmed alias Saba, now in the custody of the city crime branch in connection with the terror attacks, had created three different email IDs prior to the attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

He went to the same Pakistan camps where captured terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab was trained. The police are now trying to ascertain if he was aware of the Mumbai attack.

Saba was taken into the Mumbai police’s custody from a jail in Uttar Pradesh where he was arrested in February for attacking a CRPF camp at Rampur in UP on New Year’s eve and IISc, Bangalore, on December 29, 2005.

“It’s too early to say anything,’’ said crime branch chief Rakesh Maria. The UP police said Saba, who hails from Bihar, had earlier disclosed that three different email IDs were used prior to the Rampur CRPF attack for communication with LeT operatives. The first ID was used till they ordered for weapons and received them and the second one to smuggle the arms and facilitate the entry of fidayeen into India. The third was used till the completion of an operation and to keep in touch with their bosses, an officer said. In the Bangalore attack, Abu Hamza was the main accused who came from Pakistan.

According to a source, till 2003, Saba was in touch with his LeT mentors through a mobile and used to stay at Basera lodge in Patna’s Alam Ganj. Then, following his mentors’ instructions, he got admitted to a Darbhanga college so that he could get a student’s ID. Saba had told the UP special task force that he had created the email IDs after an LeT contact, Abdul Aziz alias Wali Bhai, asked him to do so during their Dhaka meeting.

LeT members used different codes—they named LeT “ibn-e-tainya”. During the Bangalore attack, the code for weapons was “project file”, that for fidayeen “motorbike”, for visa “action”, for Nepal “Ravi” and Bangladesh was called “Rubia”.

The net messages would be: “Aapki project file tayyar ho gayi hai, Nanihyal (Kashmir) jaa kar project file le lo, motor bike Ravi ke pass se aaye gi, Tumhara visa ka kam shuru.”

INTERNET MAPS USED TO SPOT TARGETS: COPS
Google Earth is increasingly being misused by terror groups to get the first glimpse of targets to plot attacks without moving an inch.

LeT terrorist Faheem Ansari, arrested by the UP police in February with maps and details of spots hit during the recent terror attacks, in his statement had conceded that his masters showed him the maps on the website to pinpoint specific targets. The interrogation report of Faheem said that a top LeT commander Kahasa asked him to show the spots in Mumbai on Google Earth. “I was shown the map of Mumbai on googleearth.com. Kahasa asked me to point out places in the city. He marked those places on the map,” he said. “I was first asked about the location of my residence and that of my in-laws in Mumbai.” AGENCIES

The Times of India, December 21, 2008