The Hindu : Lashkar module `busted'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

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Lashkar module `busted'

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI MAY 3. A terrorist module set up by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which had prepared itself to create "another Akshardham-type of situation" in Mumbai to "trigger communal tensions", has been neutralised with the recent killing of three persons in an encounter and the arrest over the past week of six persons with Pakistani links, the Deputy Chief Minister, Chagan Bhujbal, said here today.

At a media presentation, assisted by the top brass of the Mumbai police, Mr. Bhujbal said that the terrorists' team "had surveyed Mantralaya" — the Secretariat — and "other crowded places like the Gateway of India" where explosions could be set off. The March 13 blast in a suburban train near Mulund was part of the plot.

AK-56 assault rifles and pistols were recovered and "came from the usual country" and procurement of chemicals such as a kilogram of potassium cyanide and acids has been "traced to its source", he and the Mumbai Police Commissioner, R.K. Sharma, said pointing out that "at least a dozen to 15 persons have been trained by this team which used the difficult-to-access hills about two hours away from Mumbai".

Though they announced that "we are aware of the identities of another half-a-dozen" persons involved, "we do not intend to disclose all the details now" but a chargesheet under POTA would be filed "in the next few days".

The probe into the March 13 blast, which was followed by another in a bus near suburban Ghatkopar a few days later, led to the unearthing of the "conspiracy". Subsequently, in an encounter, three persons, including two Pakistani nationals, were killed; one of them was an ISI agent.

A sum of Rs. 4 lakhs, an AK-56 rifle, two pistols and 27 cartridges were found in their car.

Later, the chemicals and weapons were unearthed from near Bhiwandi.

The arrested persons include Arif Naser Mullah, an MBA who had allegedly received a Pakistani terrorist in Pune, found a place for him to hide in and generally supported his logistics. Another was Saquib Abdul Hamid Nachan, who had spent 10 years in jail under TADA provisions for possessing deadly weapons and had come to live in a village on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Several of the people have some connection with Pakistan, a couple of them having visited that country for training.

One of them killed in the encounter some weeks ago was a top ranking operative of the LeT's "southern command" and "they were spreading out and training people" who may have been identified but the officials wanted to withhold details.

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