The Hindu : New Delhi News : Slained LeT operative evaded arrest for two decades

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 11, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Slained LeT operative evaded arrest for two decades

Devesh K. Pandey

Master of disguises, Salim used as many as 17 aliases Was the brain behind the conspiracy to target the IMA in Dehra Dun

NEW DELHI : Intelligence agencies describe him as a master of disguise. Sallar-ul-Din alias Salim, a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative and the brain behind the conspiracy to target the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun, had evaded arrest for over two decades.

He was liquidated at Lucknow this past Wednesday.

A resident of Mahakal at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Salim entered the world of crime when he was barely 18. He was arrested in a murder case and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 but he escaped from police custody the same year.

He frequently changed his identity and appearance by shaving his head and growing a beard to look like a religious teacher, or simply remained clean-shaven.

Salim came in contact with Harkat-ul-Ansar militants. He motivated young men to join the "jehad" against India. He used as many as 17 aliases during his communication with his contacts and handlers.

Salim's name figured when the Harkat-ul-Ansar militants, Abdul Hamid, Pappu Khan, Raees Beg, and Abdul Matin, a Pakistan national, were arrested in 1996 for their alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Hamid, Raees and Abdul had said that they met Salim alias Sallar in a masjid at Ferozabad. Salim was then the Harkat-ul-Ansar chief in U.P. and had motivated them to join the outfit.

It was at his instance that they hurled a bomb at a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader at Ferozabad in 1994.

In 1995, Salim visited Kashmir. Salim knew when to distance himself from old contacts to avoid detection. After his accomplices were arrested for triggering blasts in Rajasthan in 1996, he vanished from the scene. Intelligence agencies received some information on his visits to Deoband, Aligarh and Kanpur.

It was at this juncture that the police suspect Salim began working for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as a preacher/motivator and manager of operations monitored from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by top LeT operatives, including Abdul Aziz.

He remained in direct touch with the LeT chief Saifullah.

Last March, when the Special Cell arrested two of his accomplices and gunned three others down at Uttam Nagar, they learnt that Salim was about to execute the plan to target IMA.

The conspiracy had been hatched in Nepal where Salim and other militants met Abdul Aziz. Salim fled from his Loni residence in Ghaziabad, where he had been living with his wife and two children for over three years. He once again disappeared and never even contacted his wife.

About a month ago, Salim was traced to a village near Deoband but this time round he failed to deceive the security agencies.

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