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Threat of terrorist strikes

Though as many as 30 terrorists belonging to various outfits have been arrested and four killed in police encounters so far this year, the threat of possible terrorist strikes still looms large over the Capital.

Analysis of the inputs collated by the police during various operations and the interrogation reports of terrorists have led to certain startling revelations. The police have found that the outfits were laying more emphasis on recruiting locals to carry out terrorist strikes. Earlier, the terrorist organisations "depended" largely on foreign nationals.

From the interrogation of the alleged Bangladeshi Lashkar militants, Anishul Murshlin and Muhibbul Muttakin, who were arrested this past February, the police learnt about the increasing involvement of Indian nationals -- mostly from Hyderabad, Gujarat and Mumbai -- in such activities. The duo purportedly disclosed that new recruits were being taken to Bangladesh and then to Pakistan for training on the basis of forged passports. According to the police, the terrorists provided details on how Bangladesh was being used as a base by such militants to launch operations in different parts of India. Following the same lead, the Special Cell succeeded in neutralising the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba chief in Bangladesh, Ghulam Yazdani, who was originally from Hyderabad, and a top Bangladeshi Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami militant, Ahsan Ullah Hasan. That operation was considered a major achievement as the police were able to smash almost the entire LeT terrorist module operating from Bangladesh.

Later in May, the Special Cell arrested alleged LeT militants -- Feroz Abdul Latif Ghaswala alias Abdullah from Mumbai, and Mohammad Ali Chippa from Ahmedabad -- which led to the encounter involving their Pakistani accomplice. The two made astonishing revelations giving strong indications of re-emergence of the LeT chief of operations in India, Azam Cheema, and his nefarious design of floating new modules across the country.

While from them it was confirmed that the banned outfit was recruiting more and more Indian nationals by brainwashing them, it also came to light that those initiated into terrorism were now being sent to Pakistan via Iran for training. The police also learnt that terrorists were being trained in assembling and detonating more sophisticated and powerful improvised explosive devices.

And then in August the police arrested an alleged Pakistani LeT terrorist who provided vital inputs on the activities of Zaki-ur-Rehman, second-in-command in the LeT hierarchy in Pakistan. Being his personal guard, the terrorist had accompanied Zaki for all the meetings with ISI officials, the police said.

Apart from smashing terrorist networks, the police were also able to plug some major channels that were providing financial support to militant outfits and separatist leaders.

The arrest of four more alleged militants, including an aircraft engineer, in Delhi this past week suggests that though the police have been mounting pressure, there has been a corresponding increase in the activities of terrorist outfits. In such a scenario, security and intelligence agencies need to put in more coordinated efforts to strengthen the counter-terror mechanism.

— Devesh K. Pandey

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Threat of terrorist strikes

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