'Terror trainer Cheema is LeT intel chief'

SRINAGAR: For 7/11 investigators in Mumbai, he is the 'terrorist trainer' and the strongest Pakistani link in the train blasts.
But for terrorists in J&K, the elusive Azam Cheema is one who engineers terror across the country — he not only indoctrinates youth but also handles intelligence for the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Talking to TOI from a special police cell here on Tuesday, former LeT divisional commander Mohammad Rafi Sheikh, describes the man: "Punjabi-speaking, long-bearded, pot-bellied Azam Cheema is more than 50 years old, and holds the position of surveillance or intelligence chief in LeT.He lives at Bahawalpur in Pakistan with his wife and two children, moving around in a Land Cruiser with six bodyguards."
Twenty-five-year-old Sheikh, who was arrested by the J&K police last month for executing blasts in Srinagar city and the Jammu bus stand, said Cheema was in direct contact with high-ranking officers of the ISI and would get money to run training camps at various places across Pakistan.
He said it was Cheema who brought former ISI chief general Hamid Gul, brigadier Riyaz and Colonel Mohammad Rafiq to brainwash Mujahideens undergoing arms training in Bahawalpur camp.
According to Sheikh, Cheema's training is all-encompassing. Staring from how to adjust in an alien family to strike appropriately in areas decided by the leaders, he ensures his recruits learn all.
"As a trainee I was once left in the Bahawalpur market to work undercover at a shop. After a few days Cheema came to the shop with his bodyguards and told the owner that my credentials were doubtful.
However, the shopkeeper ended up defending me as I had convinced him that I was a poor boy from Muzaffarabad. This was how I cleared my test in surveillance, after which Cheema sent me back to J&K," said Shaikh.
Cheema, he said, occasionally visited Karachi and Lahore training camps as well. He is an expert map reader — especially that of India — and mainly responsible for the terror actions in any part of India.
"He taught us how to spot vital installations of India on the map," Shaikh added. Cheema has waged jehad in Afghanistan as well and used to instruct LeT terrorists across India via satellite phone.
According to the former divisional commander, Cheema has a deputy (Naib), Mohammad alias Muzamil, of Gondnawal village in Gujarawal in Pakistan, who acts as intelligence chief in Cheema's absence.