Ehtesham Siddiqui-from the ordinary to the extremist

Mumbai, Dec 16 (UNI) Ehtesham Siddiqui (25), stated in confessional statement that Faisal Shaikh had told him in August 2005 that the Pakistan intelligence agency(ISI) had targeted Ayodhya Temple for an attack and sent men for the same after they could not make arrangements for bombing the Mumbai trains.

Ehtesham was accused of planting a bomb in a Virar-bound train on July 11 that went up at Mira Road and killed 35 people.

A student of chemical engineering, he gave up his course after two years of his arrest for being a member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). In fact, his wife deserted him after a few months of marriage and stayed with her parents thereafter when she became aware of this fact.

Even after being arrested and his wife leaving him, his interest in Islamic literature and special interest in Jihad did not diminish. He was a regular visitor of the Lashker-e-Taiba website and downloaded their literature, verses and songs.

He first met Faisal Shaikh in 2003 at Mira Road, where he himself resided, and was offered to go to a training camp. In May, the same year, he even went to Nepal to scout for a place to conduct such terror training camps through one Riyaz Bhatkal.

In April 2004, he learnt that an LeT operative, Azam Cheema was going to infiltrate India through Rajasthan and guide candidates for terror training to Pakistan. Though Siddiqui could not go for the training as his brother met with an accident, he sent Dr Tanvir Ansari, another co-accused in the 7/11 blast, for the training instead.

In 2006, Faisal told him of a further plan to attack Mumbai in an organised manner. Following Faisal's information of Cheem's planned attack, he organised a meeting at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh along with another SIMI operative Safardar Hussain Nagori.

On his return, Faisal told him that Cheema's men had already infiltrated India through various borders carrying deadly RDX with them.

Though Cheema had asked his operatives to survey the World Trade Centre, the BSE building, Mahalakshmi temple, Siddhivinayak temple and some malls, the local trains were finalised as the target and the said seven blasts were carried out.

In fact, he states, in his confessional statement, that he took some two three rounds in the train journeying from Churchgate to Virar to prepare for the attack.

The bags of RDX were to be collected from Faisal's house, where he picked it up on the afternoon of 7/11 and set off to load it on a luggage rack of the Virar-bound train.

After placing the bag, he got off at Dadar and the bomb went off while the other Pakistani troop left Mumbai the same day.

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