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Police open old files in search of bombers

Praveen Swami

Gujarat investigators focus on top terror leaders who evaded arrest after abortive 2006 bombings

Aslam Sardana not seen since he evaded a botched 2006 raid on his home
SIMI known to have recruited some new cadre in Gujarat during 2007-2008

AHMEDABAD: Investigators are reopening files on a group of jihadist leaders responsible for a series of abortive terror strikes in Gujarat, hoping for leads in a case where the perpetrators appear to have left behind few clues.

Among the men police believe could help to unravel the networks behind the bombings is Mohammad Aslam Sardana, a Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked Jammu and Kashmir resident not seen since he evaded a botched 2006 raid on his home in the remote town of Thanamandi.

Operating under the code-name Aslam Kashmiri, Sardana is believed to have recruited at least 20 men to the Lashkar, including some of those involved in an abortive attack on Gujarat in 2006, and that year’s attack on the Mumbai suburban train system. He was sent to the Dar-ul-Uloom Falah-e-Darain seminary at Tarkeshwar in 1993 by his anxious parents, who hoped its rigours would ensure that he stayed clear of the influence of jihadist groups active around his home. Over nine years, he acquired the titles of Hafiz, denoting individuals who know the Koran by heart, and Qari, signifying those skilled in the rules that govern its recitation.

But Sardana also acquired very different kinds of learning at the seminary. He became friends with Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad Sheikh, a long-standing Students Islamic Movement of India activist, who was among 11 Lashkar operatives arrested at Aurangabad and Beed in May 2006 for their role in an abortive serial bomb strike in Gujarat. Sheikh fell ill after just six months at Tarkeshwar, and returned to Aurangabad.

In 2001, Sardana and Sheikh met key SIMI leaders at Aurangabad. Among them was Zabiuddin Ansari, principal organiser of the abortive 2006 strikes, and Zulfikar Fayyaz Ahmad Kagazi, who went to place a bomb on a Mumbai-Ahmedabad express train in February 2006.

Later, Sardana took several of the Aurangabad recruits to train with Lashkar units in the mountains of Surankote, near Poonch. At least one of them, Fahd Sheikh, is now known to have died in fighting with Indian troops.

All of these efforts, however, came to nothing: none of the attempts to attack Gujarat succeeded. However, investigators were unable to locate any of the key terror recruiters. Zulfikar Fayyaz flew to Tehran, and then to Pakistan, on the morning of May 9, 2006 just before police raided his home at Aurangabad. Ansari escaped a high speed car chase, and while police in Gujarat arrested Sardana’s brother and three of his lieutenants, the Kashmiri Lashkar operative himself disappeared.

Logistics support

Investigators speculate that these figures could have provided leadership and resources to newly-recruited terror operatives in Gujarat: the operatives who provided the local logistics support needed to make the strikes successful.

SIMI is among the organisations known to have recruited some new cadre in Gujarat during 2007-2008. Early this year, at least nine SIMI cadre from Gujarat are thought to have been present at a meeting in Ahmedabad where the organisation discussed fundraising targets. SIMI cadre from Gujarat also attended a training camp organised by the Islamist organisation in Kerala. Top SIMI leaders Safdar Nagori and Abdul Peedical Shibly also visited Gujarat to meet with cadre.

No evidence exists that terrorism was discussed at these meetings, but it is possible some of the new SIMI recruits developed independent contacts with jihadists linked to the organisation. According to the interrogation records of the Hyderabad-based Lashkar operative Raziuddin Nasir, who was arrested in the midst of a plot to bomb Goa and Bangalore last year, both Ansari and Fayyaz were at the Lashkar’s headquarters in Pakistan last year. Nasir himself worked at the Lashkar’s offices in Pakistan for several months.

But it is also possible that organised crime elements provided local support and guidance. Late in 2006, Dubai authorities deported 10 operatives linked to ganglord Shakeel Ahmad Babu, better known as Chhota Shakeel. From the group, the Gujarat police learned that Babu’s brother, Anwar Sheikh, and his lieutenant Farooq Devdiwalla, were funnelling funds to jihadists in the State.

Bangladesh-based mafioso Amir Reza Khan, whose brother Asif Reza Khan was killed in a controversial 2001 encounter, is also thought to support Gujarat jihadists. Khan’s organisation, the Asif Reza Commander Force, was earlier led by ganglord Aftab Ansari. Apart from a terror strike on the U.S. Information Services offices in Kolkata, it is thought to have run explosives across the Bangladesh-India border.

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