'Pakistan's ISI engineered 7/11 Mumbai blasts'

Mumbai, Sept 30: Mumbai police today held Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) responsible for the serial bomb blasts in suburban trains that killed nearly 200 people and wounded over 700 in one of the worst terror attacks in the country's economic capital on July 11 this year.

Announcing this at a media conference here, Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy said the multiple blasts were the handiwork of the Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba ( LeT) and banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), adding 11 Pakistan nationals and 12 Indians took active part in the terror act.

Noting that the trail of money used in organising the crime, too, had been traced to Pakistan, he said funds were transferred to a city-based operative via Saudi Arabia.

The Police Commissioner said most of the Pakistan and Indian nationals were trained in a camp run at Bahawalpur by LeT's India commander Azam Cheema. Bahawalpur-based Cheema has been organising anti-India operations at the behest of the ISI.

Mr Roy and anti-terrorist squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi said investigators have not yet come across any linkages between the 7/11 and the 9/11 in New York nor any evidence linking the Mumbai train blasts with the al-Qaeda found so far.

Declining to comment on the conspiracy angle, which the police officers said was still under scrutiny, the invesigators also ruled out any link between 7/11 and the 1993 serial bomb blasts. They also said the ATS has also not found any links between 7/11 and September 8 blasts at Malegaon and a haul of RDX in Aurangabad.

But the police officers confirmed that seven improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted in triggering as many blasts in the trains contained a mix of RDX and ammonium nitrate, adding IEDs were packed in pressure cookers.

The Police Commissioner said the Mumbai train blasts were executed by three India-based terrorist modules of LeT but RDX used in the IEDs was brought from Pakistan by one Ehasanullah, adding they were not sure if the entire consignment of about 15 to 20 kgs of the deadly explosive had been expended by the terrorists. The India-based modules were headed by Faizal Sheikh of Mira Road, Mumbai, Kamaluddin Ansari of Madhubani in Bihar and Ehtesam Siddique, general secretary of Maharashtera unit of the unlawful SIMI. Siddique is also resident of Mira Road.

They facilitated the entry of 11 Pakistanis from three different routes to India to carry out the terror attacks, Mr Roy said. One group of two Pakistanis came via Nepal, the second group of five led by Abdul Majid entered via Bangladesh and four reached Mumbai via Gujarat, he added. Abdul Majid was arrested by the ATS sleuths from Kolkata yesterday and is now in their custody.

The Police Commissioner said the 11 Pakistanis, who started infiltrating India from May 25, were sheltered at four hideouts in Mumbai arranged by Faizal Sheikh at Malad, Borivali (East), at Mumbra residence of Abdul Waheed and in his room at Bandra.

Seven groups of two planters each, comprising an Indian and a Pakistani, left seven IEDs packed in as many pressure cookers concealed in bags in first class coaches of local trains on July 22.

Of the total eight pressure cookers purchased by terrorists, one has yet to be accounted for.

Of the seven Indian planters of bombs, four have been arrested.

They are Faizal Sheikh, whose planted bomb exploded at Jogeshwari, Kamaluddin Ansari, whose IED exploded at Matunga, Ehtesam Siddique, whose act triggered blast at Mira Road, and Naved, arrested in Hyderabad today.

Of the seven Pakistani co-planters, one Salim of Lahore died in the blast and his body is lying in a city morgue, Mr Roy said.

He said one Pakistani terrorist killed in the Antop Hill encounter in the city was among the 11 inflitrators but it could not be ascertained if he was among the planters. He identified the dead accused as Mohammed Ali alias Abu Osama alias Abu Omar.

The remaining nine Pakistanis had fled and might have returned to Pakistan but police are still investigating, Mr Roy added.

Declining to identify the three yet-to-be arrested Indian planters, Mr Roy, however, said one of them would be arrested ''soon''. Altogether 15 people have been arrested in the case so far, including the three planters. They are Kamal Ahmed Ansari, Khalid Aziz Shaikh, Mumtaz Choudhary, Dr Tanvir Ansari, Zameer Shaikh, Sohail Abdul Ghani Shaikh, Faisal Rehman Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Mohammed Sajid Ansari, Mohammed Shafi, Abdul Wahiuddin, Mohammed Majid, Akmal Hashmi, Mohammed Naveed. Of them three could be let off if cooroborative evidence was not found against them, the Police Commissioner said.

Mr Roy said each IED weighed between 5.5 to 6.5 kg comprising a mix of RDX (two to 2.5 kg) and ammonium nitrate (3.5 to four kg), adding the latter chemical was procured locally.

He said the bombs were assembled in the house of Mohammed Ali at Shivajinagar in Chembur area of the city on July 8,9 and 10. Each IED was kept in a five-litre capacity pressure cooker and brought to the one room-tenement of Faizal in Bandra a day before the blasts rocked the city.

Each pressure cooker-IED was placed in a bag and each bag when planted in seven trains was camouflaged with papers and umbrellas.

Armed with seven IED-filled bags, all seven teams of planters travelled to Churchgate by cab and boarded local trains for western suburbs. Barring Salim, all planters disembarked on the way. Salim's identity was reconstructed through DNA analysis, police said.

As to why first class compartments of the trains were targetted, Mr Roy said most west-bound trains from Churchgate leave from platform 2 and 3 and if one came to these platforms from the subaway one would emerge bang in front of a first class coach. He said six teams of planters came through the subway.

Describing the case '' a blinder'', the Police Commissioner said blasts were carried out professionally with precision and in well-planned manner. He said unlike the first serial blasts in India in Mumbai in 1993 and subsequently elsewhere in the world in Madrid and London, the terrorists did not leave behind a shred of evidence in the 7/11 Mumbai blasts. But he lauded teams of ATS and Crime Branch and the technical support group for unravelling the crime.

''This is a beautiful piece of highly professional and scientific investigations,'' Mr Roy noted with pride.

He revealed the investigators had nothing to work upon but technical support group, which analysed telephone traffic, got their first breakthrough when monitored repated calls made from Navi Mumbai to area bordering Nepal border. This, he added, led to the arrest of Kamaluddin Ansari from Madhubani in Bihar which borders Nepal.

He said the Faizal Sheikh module which played a critical role in funding terrorist activities was cracked by the Crime Branch.

''Faizal received money from Pakistan through a LeT operative Rizwan Dawre based in Saudi Arabia. About 26,000 riyals were recovered from him at the time of his arrest. In the last four to five years, Faizal has received Rs 60 lakh through Hawala channels,'' he added.

Giving details of the investigation, Mr Roy said seven teams of ATS sleuths were deployed to solve the seven blasts. Besides support by the Crime Branch and the technical group, scientific aids like the narco analysis tests were used comprehensively to give a direction to the investigations, he added.

While declining to answer questions about the RDX seizure in Aurangabad, Mr Roy, however, said two main accused - Zaibuddin and Rahil - are believed to have fled to Bangladesh.

Mr Roy said the investigation would continue. ''More arrests are likely. We have to ensure a successful trial and conviction of the accused,'' he added.

The State police chief P S Pasricha came in the middle of the media confrence to congrulate the entire team of investigators but left without taking any question from journalists.

UNI

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