The Hindu : National : Lashkar planned terror strikes in south India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 31, 2006

National

National

Lashkar planned terror strikes in south India

Praveen Swami

14 from Hyderabad, 6 from Gujarat were recruited for training Little is known about the overall command structure of Bangladesh-based jihadist groups operating in India

NEW DELHI: A conversation between the Dhaka-based Naved Gul, and his handlers in Pakistan, intercepted by Research and Analysis Wing intelligence personnel, links him to the December 2005 attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

A suspect wanted since 2003 for his alleged role in an operation to execute terror strikes in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, Gul was among 14 Hyderabadis recruited to train with the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan after the Gujarat pogrom in 2002.

While recruits who possessed passports travelled to Pakistan by a scheduled flight from Kolkata to Bangkok, the others went through Dhaka after crossing the West Bengal-Bangladesh border.

Six residents of Gujarat, from Ahmedabad, Bharuch and Surat, were also recruited for training in Pakistani jihad camps around the same time, as part of a large-scale enterprise to execute terror strikes across southern and central India. Some of these recruits are thought to have crossed into Pakistan through the Line of Control in Poonch district. One of them, Munir Ahmad, was killed in the attempt.

Probe into links

Last week, Bangalore Deputy Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar met his counterparts in Jammu and Kashmir to investigate possible links Mujeeb Ahmad, a Hyderabad-based terror suspect who has been questioned on the IISc attack, may have had with jihadi organisations in the State. Ahmad proclaimed himself to be the overall amir, or chief, of Islamist terror groups, himself operating in the Deccan region.

Ahmad, whose networks recruited Gul, spent several years in jail for his role in the killing of Additional Superintendent of Police Krishna Prasad, in a reprisal for the massive communal violence that rocked Hyderabad in 1990. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released by the Andhra Pradesh Government in 2004 as part of a controversial Independence Day gesture.

Soon after, Ahmad reactivated his links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Hizb ul-Mujahideen. When he was rearrested last year, Ahmad was found to have produced films in which he appealed for funds from jihadist organisations overseas. Investigators have arrested several members of Ahmad's south Indian network, notably Nalagonda resident Abdul Rehman, on suspicion that they played a role in the IISc attack.

However, no progress has been made in identifying the gunman who executed the attack. One possibility is that Gul drew on the resources of the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Hizb ul-Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir, bypassing the networks run by Ahmad and other operatives in southern India. If so, it is the first time jihadist networks in southern India have drawn on these resources.

Little is known either about the overall command structure of Bangladesh-based jihadist groups operating in India. Indian communications intelligence suggests two individuals code-named `Kanchan' and `Shabbir' play a key role. It is unclear if either is a cover-identity for Abdul Karim `Tunda,' a senior Lashkar operative who was a founder of its pan-India terror operations.

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