Karnataka   

Judgment brings cheer to police officers

CHICKBALLAPUR: “We have won the first battle against terrorism in Karnataka,” said senior police officer Victor S. D’Souza, after the special court that tried the serial church blast cases of 2000 convicted 23 persons on Friday on charges of conspiring to wage a war against the Government of India.

Indeed, the conviction has brought cheer to many officers such as Mr. D’Souza, Inspectors-General of Police P. Ravindranath and B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji and former Directors-General of Police V.V. Bhaskar and C. Dinakar, who had played a major role in unearthing the Pakistan ISI involvement in the serial blasts at the churches in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

The investigations by the CoD, in association with intelligence agencies, had revealed that the ISI had planned and funded the explosions.

The ISI, the investigators had found, had selected the Deendar Anjuman group to execute the blasts, ostensibly with the intention of protecting the mainstream Muslim community from being accused of terrorism.

According to officers who were connected with the investigation, the now banned Deendar outfit had been disowned by Muslims all over the world.

It is said that almost six decades ago, as many as 53 Islamic nations and an equal number of Muslim ‘ulemas’ all over the world had declared the Deendar anti-Islamic, and this was the main reason why the Deendar group was selected for the purpose.

Further, the 71-year-old Hyderabad-based organisation, which had not grown over the years as both Muslims and Hindus had disowned it, was out of the public glare.

Police too, were largely unaware of its existence as it had no history of indulging in anti-social activities.

Another interesting aspect about Deendar Anjuman that was unravelled by the investigators was that its members never disclosed their affiliation with the organisation in public as they always feared that mainstream Muslims would “ill treat” them.

The officers said that even in selecting the Deendar members for the terrorist acts, utmost care had been taken.

Majority of those who were handpicked for the purpose were closely related to each other and some of them were even trained in insurgency and use of explosives by the ISI in Pakistan. Khaliq-ul-Zama of Nuzvid in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh was named the chief of the sabotage operations. All the four Zama brothers, Khaliq, then an auditor at the Krishna District Cooperative Central Bank; Shamsad, a conductor with the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation; Zeelani, a mechanic; and Syed Hassan-ul Zama, an Indian Air Force officer, were involved in the conspiracy.

Three of them have been convicted; Khaliq died during the trial.

Similarly, S.M. Ibrahim, the first to be arrested in Bangalore, and who too has been convicted, and his four brothers who were based in Vijayawada and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, also had played a key role in the explosions, the officers explained.

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