Police hope to get more info on terror groups from Ansari

Mateen Hafeez I TNN

Mumbai: Lashkar-e-Taiba ope r at ive, Fa h e e m Ansari, will be brought to the city on Monday by the city crime branch as part of the investigations to ascertain whether he had knowledge about the 26/11 terror module. “We will bring Ansari to Mumbai tomorrow,” said crime branch chief Rakesh Maria.

Both Ansari and Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist in crime branch custody, had been trained by the LeT in Pakistan. The crime branch is also probing if any other suspect had been trained near Manshera, Muzaffarabad, and Muridke in Pakistan where Kasab was trained for 26/11.

Ansari is currently in an Uttar Pradesh jail in connection with an attack on the CRPF camp at Rampur in January. He came under the scanner after investigation revealed that he had done a recce of Taj, Oberoi, Mantralaya, police commissioner’s office and state police headquarters.

“We want to establish if Ansari had done the recce, identifying the targets for Kasab’s group, which was responsible for the recent attacks. If Ansari has been working for another module, we will gather more details about
their plans,’’ said a crime branch officer.

The crime branch, with the help of the state intelligence department, is now examining a list of suspects who are believed to have undergone training in the Pakistani camps in the past. Kasab had told the police that he was trained by Saifur Rehmand, Abu Safa and Muzammil.

While the police suspect that the Pakistani terrorists might have got some local support, the suspected involvement of some trained Indian youths in the attack will help the investigators unearth a bigger conspiracy, said police.

There are reportedly at least six camps at Punjab in Pakistan where new recruits are trained. It is worth noting that those caught for the July 11, 2006, serial bomb blasts on Mumbai’s local trains, had undergone terror training in Bahawalpur camps in Pakistan between Jaunary 2003 and May 2006. The prime suspect in the 7/11 train blasts case, Faisal Shaikh, was trained twice. This module, which is alleged to have engineered the train blasts, had gone to Pakistan via Tehran and attended a month-long training.

At least two suspects caught for the Malegaon 2006 blast underwent terror training in camps near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan. They had travelled to Pakistan via Dubai and returned to India via Nepal, said an officer.
mateen.hafeez@timesgroup.com

The Times of India, December 15, 2008