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Ansari was pulling strings from Dubai: CBI
By Vinay Kumar
NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today got seven days transit remand for the underworld don Aftab Ansari from a Delhi court, the agency faces a daunting a task ahead in unearthing his links and tracing his associates.
If his deportation from Dubai speaks volumes of international police cooperation and marks triumph of diplomacy, it is now for the CBI and the Kolkata, Delhi and Gujarat police investigators to nail him by gathering evidence that would clinch the case in their favour when taken up by the courts.
``Probably, Aftab Ansari is the first big catch for us who has spent a considerable time in Pakistan. He was fast emerging as head of a crime syndicate and pulling strings from Dubai,'' the CBI Director, P.C. Sharma, told The Hindu. Mr. Sharma appeared satisfied over the fact that coordinated efforts of the Indian High Commission in Dubai, the Ministry of External Affairs and the CBI culminated in the deportation of Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik.
Sources in the CBI said the fact that Ansari was given a Pakistani passport and used to often visit Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore indicated that he did enjoy the patronage of the authorities there. However, it is yet to be ascertained if he had any links with Dawood Ibrahim, the prime accused in the 1993 Bombay serial blast case and on India's list of 20 most-wanted terrorists handed over to Pakistan.
With the assistance of Omar Sheikh, one of the three terrorists exchanged for the safe return of hostages in the Kandahar IC-814 hijacking in December 1999, Ansari was given the task of extending logistic support to the Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HUJI) saboteurs who infiltrated through Bangladesh, arrange for their escape operations and abduct high-value targets to secure the release of Nasarullah Langrayal from Jodhpur jail.
PTI reports:
Aftab Ansari has admitted to the CBI about his involvement in the attack and links with terrorists and `jehadis' in Pakistan. The CBI, while seeking his transit remand, told a Delhi court that Ansari during his interrogation also admitted of forming a countrywide network of arms, narcotics smugglers for carrying out illegal activities in India.
CBI sources said Ansari had entertained a desire to overshadow the ``clout'' of the underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim, and become another Ramirez Sanchez better known as ``Carlos, the Jackal''.
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