3 terrorists in alert are bizmen, guard?

Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune published this combo picture and captioned it (from left to right) as Baber (security guard), Mehtab Butt (shop owner) and Atif Butt (shop owner)

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Was it another goofup by Indian security agencies? A Pakistani newspaper on Thursday reported that three of the five Pakistanis alleged to be terrorists by the Intelligence Bureau and who were said to have entered Mumbai for a terror attack, are actually Pakistani mobile retailers. The report even said the three persons had approached a Lahore police station seeking protection.
 

    Sources in the Indian security establishment on Thursday scrambled to say the alert was “not for Mumbai”.
 

    Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik on Monday conducted a meeting of senior police officials and briefed them about security after the IB issued the alert.
 

    The alert, along with colour pictures of suspected Pakistani terrorists, was issued on May 6. Intelligence agencies warned that five Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, aged 25-30, had managed to sneak into Mumbai via the sea route, in what seemed like a rerun of 26/ 11. It was believed the men wanted to attack vital installations. On May 7, after police and other security officials met, security was heightened for key Mumbai installations.
 

    Now, sources in the security establishment said the alert came from the Research and Analysis Wing, and it was issued to the agencies concerned by the Multi Agency Centre, which is part of IB. After the Pakistani newspaper report emerged on Thursday rubbishing the alert, RAW is believed to have been asked to explain the intelligence alert. 

    Union home secretary R K Singh said, “The advisory circulated was based on credible information. We stand by that. As far as contents of the advisory, we do not comment on ongoing matter.”
 

    Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune said three of the five “terrorists” were very much present in Lahore. The report said, “In Lahore, after seeing their pictures reported by Indian media, three of those identified, businessmen Atif Butt, Mehtab Butt and security guard Baber Shabbir, approached their local police station to request for protection.” Two of the three, the report said, owned mobile retail stores in Lahore’s electronic market Hafeez Centre.
 

    “I don’t know much about it. I will check it out,” Patnaik told TOI, “The crime branch and the ATS must be aware about the details.”
 

    After being approached, state security officials came up with a new theory. “The alert was not for Mumbai. The five terrorists did not enter the city. They have done a recce of their targets and are well trained. Their targets are an oil refinery in Punjab, some place in Jamnagar, two communally sensitive areas in Gujarat and the National Defence Academy near Pune,” an official said. 

 

 

The Times of India, May 11, 2012