Ahmedabad, Mumbai, one mastermind?

Prashant Dayal / TNN / Dec 22, 2008, 23:00 IST

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Could the mastermind of the Ahmedabad serial blasts of July 26 and Mumbai terror attack of November 26 be the same?

AHMEDABAD: Could the mastermind of the Ahmedabad serial blasts of July 26 and Mumbai terror attack of November 26 be the same? An accused questioned in the Mumbai terror attack case, Fahim Ansari, has named Pakistan-based Amir Reza Khan, who he says, asked him to do recces of Mumbai's important public places.
Amir, who originally belongs to Kolkata, is already named as the mastermind of the Ahmedabad serial blasts and Gujarat police is soon going to seek a red corner notice for him.The 2000-page chargesheet submitted by the crime branch against the 29 accused of Ahmedabad serial blasts lists Amir as an absconder.
Joint police commissioner (crime branch) Ashish Bhatia said: "We are checking if there has been any earlier red corner notice against Amir. If there is already such an alert, we would like to update the information. If there has been none till date, we will initiate procedure for a red corner notice against the terrorist.''
"In the last six months all the serial blasts that took place in the country are interconnected. We have seized some vital documents during investigations into the Ahmedabad serial blasts which prove that Amir is a key figure and an important functionary of the Indian Mujahideen (IM),'' said senior police officers in Ahmedabad crime branch.

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Haryana

Alliance View
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Party View

Seats: 90

L + W

Majority: 46

BJP

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INLD

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OTH

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BJP WON

Source: PValue

In fact, the last e-mail sent by IM in August had mentioned "fidayeen attacks'' of the kind that happened in Mumbai, and also ridiculed Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare and other police officers. It is believed that Pune- based techie Mohammed Mansur Asghar Peerbhoy had sent these e-mails.
Investigators not only see the pieces fit into the jigsaw but now believe that there was a definite LeT backing to IM.
Amir is the younger brother of Asif Reza Khan, who was killed in a police encounter in Rajkot for his involvement in the kidnapping of two jewellers. He was also arrested for the attack on the American Center at Kolkata on the directive of gangster Aftab Ansari.

Uttar Pradesh police arrested Fahim Ansari, 39, in February for the attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur a month earlier. Fahim was trained in Pakistan at a Lashkar-e-Taiba terror camp and had revealed that Amir and another man, Abdul Sami, were the prime conspirators. Sami is wanted in both Bangalore and Ahmedabad serial blasts.
Ahmedabad crime branch has been intimated about Fahim's disclosures by UP police. "This has started a new line of investigation,'' said an investigating officer.
TERROR TRAIL
Fahim used to work in a call centre Goregaon, Mumbai and considered Osama Bin Laden as his role-model. In 2005 when he went to Dubai for work where he met Sami. When he returned to India, Sami sent him to Pakistan for a year's training with LeT.
After that Amir put Fahim on a project to carry out recces at Mumbai's Taj Hotel, Hotel Trident, Stock Exchange, Mumbai Vidhan Sabha, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai police commissionerate and ATS-Mumbai.
Fahim sent video clippings and photograhs of all these to Amir in Pakistan, through a Mumbai-based terror operative Shoab, who has also been caught by Mumbai police. Shoab too is a native of UP and has been trained in Pakistan. "Shoab had been trained along with Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist arrested during the terror attack on Mumbai,'' said a Gujarat police officer.

About the Author

Prashant Dayal

Prashant Dayal is special correspondent at The Times of India, Ahmedabad. He reports on crime and politics. He likes to work among people and bring out their real-life experiences in his column "Jeevti Varta".

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