The Central intelligence agencies had warned of attacks by the Indian Mujahideen in major cities, including Bangalore, and the input was communicated to the State police forces in the middle of March.
According to sources in the intelligence agencies, Mohammed Salman alias Chotu, an Indian Mujahideen activist arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in the first week of March, told a joint interrogation team that the outfit had conspired to carry out the attacks with explosive-laden vehicles. Salman, who was allegedly involved in the multiple serial blasts in 2008, revealed that Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore were on the hit list.
The terrorists had planned to target the establishments of the Anti-Terrorist Squad and the Special Task Force in the southern States. Indian Mujahideen had also planned to kidnap prominent personalities for ransom.
A report by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on the activities of Muslim fundamentalists confirms that some banned organisations had links with Pakistan-based terrorist outfits.
Showing posts with label Bangalore attacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bangalore attacks. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Stadium attacks herald new Indian Mujahideen offensive
Investigators believe Saturday's bombings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore were executed by an Indian Mujahideen cell led by Mohammad Zarar Siddi Bawa, police sources told The Hindu.
Karnataka-born Bawa—also known as ‘Yasin Bhatkal'—is allegedly a key figure in a series of urban bombings executed by the Indian Mujahideen between 2005 and 2008 that claimed hundreds of lives.
Bawa, police say, was the organisation's key-bomb maker and his devices were used in the attacks.
Earlier this year, during investigations, he emerged as a key suspect in the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune. Police informants had identified the fair, slight Bawa, dressed in a loose-fitting blue shirt and a rucksack slung over his back, in closed-circuit footage recorded by a camera placed over the cashier's counter at the German Bakery. Witnesses also identified Bawa from photographs shown to them by Pune investigators.
The police sources say there was credible intelligence that he was planning further attacks, but insist there was no information suggesting the M. Chinnaswamy stadium was to be targeted.
The timer-activated improvised explosive devices were similar in design to the devices used in Bangalore. “High humidity in Bangalore because of recent rains may have degraded the ammonium nitrate used to manufacture the bombs, lessening their lethality,” a senior police official told TheHindu. Similar problems had led the nine improvised explosive devices planted in Bangalore in July, 2008, to malfunction.
Bawa was allegedly recruited into the Indian Mujahideen by his childhood friends, Islamist ideologue Iqbal Shahbandri and his brother Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri. Karnataka Police sources say Bawa was a key figure in a meeting held in the summer of 2004 on the beachfront in Bhatkal, where key Indian Mujahideen operatives met for the first time to discuss their operational strategies.
Police in several States have sought Bawa ever since October, 2008, when he escaped a police raid on an Indian Mujahideen safe house near Chikmagalur. Police recovered laboratory equipment, precision tools and five complete improvised explosive devices during the raids.
For at least a year, it has been clear that the Indian Mujahideen has been rebuilding its networks in India. In his testimony to the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley spoke of what he called the ‘Karachi Project': a Lashkar effort to raise new networks of Indian jihadists.
Police say Hyderabad-based jihadist Sheikh Abdul Khaja, who was arrested by the Indian authorities in January, had met with key leaders of the Indian Mujahideen in Karachi, including Bawa, the Shahbandri brothers, and gang-lord-turned-jihadist Amir Raza Khan.
Karnataka-born Bawa—also known as ‘Yasin Bhatkal'—is allegedly a key figure in a series of urban bombings executed by the Indian Mujahideen between 2005 and 2008 that claimed hundreds of lives.
Bawa, police say, was the organisation's key-bomb maker and his devices were used in the attacks.
Earlier this year, during investigations, he emerged as a key suspect in the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune. Police informants had identified the fair, slight Bawa, dressed in a loose-fitting blue shirt and a rucksack slung over his back, in closed-circuit footage recorded by a camera placed over the cashier's counter at the German Bakery. Witnesses also identified Bawa from photographs shown to them by Pune investigators.
The police sources say there was credible intelligence that he was planning further attacks, but insist there was no information suggesting the M. Chinnaswamy stadium was to be targeted.
The timer-activated improvised explosive devices were similar in design to the devices used in Bangalore. “High humidity in Bangalore because of recent rains may have degraded the ammonium nitrate used to manufacture the bombs, lessening their lethality,” a senior police official told TheHindu. Similar problems had led the nine improvised explosive devices planted in Bangalore in July, 2008, to malfunction.
Bawa was allegedly recruited into the Indian Mujahideen by his childhood friends, Islamist ideologue Iqbal Shahbandri and his brother Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri. Karnataka Police sources say Bawa was a key figure in a meeting held in the summer of 2004 on the beachfront in Bhatkal, where key Indian Mujahideen operatives met for the first time to discuss their operational strategies.
Police in several States have sought Bawa ever since October, 2008, when he escaped a police raid on an Indian Mujahideen safe house near Chikmagalur. Police recovered laboratory equipment, precision tools and five complete improvised explosive devices during the raids.
For at least a year, it has been clear that the Indian Mujahideen has been rebuilding its networks in India. In his testimony to the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley spoke of what he called the ‘Karachi Project': a Lashkar effort to raise new networks of Indian jihadists.
Police say Hyderabad-based jihadist Sheikh Abdul Khaja, who was arrested by the Indian authorities in January, had met with key leaders of the Indian Mujahideen in Karachi, including Bawa, the Shahbandri brothers, and gang-lord-turned-jihadist Amir Raza Khan.
