Terrorists prefer small modules: Interrogators

Strategy Changed After IM Module Was Busted In 2008

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: The interrogation of suspected German Bakery blast mastermind Mirza Himayat Baig (29) has revealed that the terrorists are preferring to form small modules. The terror suspects realized there could be a larger number of arrests if the modules were big. This strategy was adopted after a big module of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) was busted in September 2008 and 21 suspects were arrested.

“During the interrogation, Baig has admitted that the module involved in the German Bakery blast consisted of only three persons. However, we are not buying this,” said Rakesh Maria, the 59-year-old additional director general of police of the anti-terrorism squad (ATS).

Baig was arrested on September 7 from Pune for his alleged role in conspiring, assembling and transporting a bomb which was planted at German Bakery in Koregaon Park area. Seventeen persons were killed and 65 others were injured in the deadly RDX blast that occured on February 13.

The largest module of IM suspects was busted in 2008 while the Mumbai crime branch was also probing to find out the origin of a terror email sent to several television channels claiming responsibility for the Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts and the Surat terror strikes. An e-mail was traced to the house of US national Ken Haywood in Navi Mumbai. The crime branch later arrested Mansoor Peerbhoy, a computer engineer from Pune, and 20 others.

Before this, a module of suspected members of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was busted by the ATS in 2006. “The ATS had then arrested 21 members of a module run by Fayyaz Kagazi and Zabihuddin Ansari alias Zaby. Both Zaby and Kagazi are still at large,” said an ATS officer.

A senior ATS officer said the decision to form small groups of the terror outfit was finalized at the Colombo meeting in 2008. “The group also instructed all members to keep a low profile and avoid the police glare. This is why Baig never came under the radar,” said a security establishment official.

Baig was entrusted with the job of forming small modules, the ATS said. “For this, he travelled to Parbhani, Beed, Aurangabad and other cities in Maharashtra. He visited Mumbai too, but never planned any attack there. The focus was western Maharashtra only,” said a senior ATS official.

Maria said Baig was a tourist and would travel a lot. “He would visit these cities to supervise the activities of the new modules.” He added that Baig was being questioned about the other persons in other modules and those heading the modules. “He is also being grilled about the other Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commanders in other states,” said sources in the security establishment.

The ATS has seized six computers and hard discs from Baig’s cyber cafe, Global Internet Café, in Udgir, Latur. The hard discs will soon be sent for a cyber analysis,” said an official, adding that the ATS was also trying to obtain the mirror-image of the computers for their probe.


The Times of India, (Pune), September 11, 2010