NEW DELHI: Eight weeks ago, when the Delhi Police first learned of the existence of `Abu Huzaifa,' all they had was a code name for the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander who ordered the serial bombings that killed 63 persons just before Diwali. Now they have a dead body, but very little else.

Although Abu Huzaifa's elimination is a significant triumph for the investigators who spent weeks tracking him in down — and will probably be greeted by the families of those killed in the serial bombings as long-awaited vengeance — it is unlikely to erode the Lashkar's capabilities. In and outside of Jammu and Kashmir, the Lashkar has built structures that have allowed it to survive far more serious blows.

Few facts have so far emerged on the precise role Abu Huzaifa played in the bombings, other than the fact that he was linked to Tariq Dar, the Srinagar-based pharmaceutical salesman who authorities say organised the terror attacks. In November, Dar told additional chief metropolitan magistrate Madhu Jain that he had met with Abu Huzaifa several times before the attacks. Although Dar denied that he had a role in the bombings, he admitted to funnelling funds to the Lashkar.

Dar's confession is supported by information gathered in the course of a separate operation targeting the Lashkar. According to investigators involved in tracking the recently-killed Lashkar commander Abdul Rahman `Mota,' Dar met Abu Huzaifa in September last. An informant told the Jammu and Kashmir police that Huzaifa had taken Dar aside, saying he had a message for the salesman from the Lashkar's buzurg [elder]. Of the contents of the message, though, nothing is known.

If Dar was ordered to execute the Delhi bombings, it is plausible that the instructions to do so would have been passed through Abu Huzaifa. The Lashkar is thought to have been assigned Abu Huzaifa command of one of several independent cells set up after the April, 2003, elimination of his predecessor, who was known by the code-name `Khalid' and the radio call-sign `Sierra 7.' Unlike other commanders, however, Abu Huzaifa was also given the authority to issue Lashkar communiqués, a sign of his seniority.

Despite his public role, few hard facts are available on Abu Huzaifa, other than that he was a Pakistani national of ethnic Punjabi origin.

Prior to his taking charge of the north Kashmir operations of the Lashkar, he was known to some of the organisation's overground cadre as `Abdullah'. It is unclear, though, whether this was his actual name or just another alias.

If nothing else, the opacity of Abu Huzaifa's identity points to the seriousness with which the Lashkar treats operational secrecy. For the past several years, the alias Abu Huzaifa has been used by successive public relations chiefs of the Lashkar. Until his arrest in 2003, Majid Hussain Qadri, a long-standing Lashkar operative who worked behind a cover identity as a research scholar at the Kashmir University, had used the nom de guerre, which was then assigned to the commander killed today.

Few in the intelligence community believe Abu Huzaifa's killing will cause the Lashkar long-term harm. Several parallel cells with demonstrated terror capabilities remain active. For several months, authorities have been operating against one such cell, commanded by a Lashkar operative so far known only by the aliases `Bilal', `Haider' and `Salahuddin.' `Salahuddin' commanded several high-profile operations including a 2004 attack on a rally held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Informants say he is over six feet tall, and wears size-14 shoes.

Much of the Lashkar command has responded to pressure directed at it after the Delhi bombings by moving away from inhabited areas into the dense forests of the Bandipora mountains. `Salahuddin,' for example, is thought never to leave the Sumblar forests, an area where no major troop movements are possible since military activity would be detected early and thus rendered useless. Covert operations to locate and destroy Lashkar command bunkers hidden in the hills are being considered, sources said, but can only be initiated in the spring.

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