Which Kyani did Saba meet?

The link between the Pakistan army [Images], its Inter Services Intelligence directorate and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images] was strengthened after Lashkar operative Sabahuddin Ahmed confessed to the police that he had met several high-ranking Pakistan army officers including someone named Colonel Kayani.

Sabahuddin, a native of Bihar who was arrested for his role in the January 1, 2008 attack on the Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh [Images], is currently being probed for the role he played in the Mumbai attacks.

He told his interrogators that he took to terrorism after the December 6, 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid and revealed that he had helped Fahim Ansari survey likely targets for the Mumbai [Images] attacks.

Sabahuddin repeatedly told his interrogators that he had met a senior Pakistani officer named Kayani. These statements find mention in his 40-page confession statement, which is in the possession of rediff.com

Investigators are unable to verify if the man Sabahuddin is referring to is General Parvez Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan’s army chief.

IB sources say they cannot rule out the possibility that he may be referring to the Pakistani army chief, who served as the ISI director before being elevated to his present position.

In his confession Sabahuddin said he met with Kayani in 2002. At that time, General Kayani was Pakistan’s director general of military operations.

‘I met him along with other ISI officers. I was told by the Lashkar that I would be working for the ISI in Pakistan, but would be touch with the Lashkar too. Kayani, along with other ISI officers, supervised my training programme in Pakistan. Kayani even gave me Rs 25,000 before I left Pakistan. He sent his man along with me to the airport and ensured that I got out safe from Pakistan,’ Sabahuddin revealed in his statement.

He starts off his confession by disclosing that he had met with Zaki-ur-Rehman Laqvi, the Lashkar’s main terror-planner, at the home of another Lashkar terrorist named Muzzamil.

Sabahuddin met with Laqvi after he had completed the Daur-e-Khas (specialised training) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. After this, Muzzamil took Sabahuddin to meet with a man named Abul al-Qama in Islamabad [Images].

‘I was then introduced to a man by the name Abdulla Mujahid who is a coordinator between the Lashkar and the ISI. It was here that both Muzzamil and Laqvi asked me whether I would be interested in joining the ISI. I was then taken to the Markaz Tayiba, the Lashkar headquarters at Murdike, around 50 kilometres from Lahore [Images].’

Sabahuddin says Markaz Tayiba is where the Lashkar’s terror leadership, including Mohammad Sayeed, Abdur Rehman Maki and Abdus Salam Ghuti are based.

‘From here I returned to Lahore where I was introduced to Colonel Kayani in the year 2002. Kayani was a top brass in the ISI at that time. Apart from this I was also introduced to other ISI officials, Abdul Majid and Subedar Babar. I was trained by these men in the gathering of intelligence, surveillance and also reconnaissance,’ he notes in his confession.

‘I took a flight out of Lahore to Doha and from there I flew to Kathmandu by Qatar Airways on March 17, 2003,’ he adds.

‘The ISI officials had told me that I needed to get back to India and they even arranged a passport in the name of Mohammad Shafiq. They mentioned a fake address mentioning my place of residence as Faisalbad, Punjab, Pakistan. I was taken to the Nepalese embassy in Islamabad personally by Subedar Javed, an ISI official. He ensured that I was able to get a visa under the guise of a carpet businessman from Pakistan,’ says Sahabuddin

‘Throughout my stint in Pakistan I was told that I would be working for the ISI but at the same time, I had to be in touch with the Lashkar,’ he said.

Further, he reveals that once he reached Kathmandu he tore up the passport and flushed it down the toilet.

‘I then took up a room at the Hotel Kamal and identified myself as a businessman from Delhi [Images]. On several occasions I tried to get into India, but failed. I then mailed a person in the Pakistan army by the name Captain Malik Zafar, expressing my inability to cross the border. Zafar responded to my mail and immediately sent across a youth by the name, Vinod. I was told that this person would help me cross the border,’ Sabahuddin said.

Vinod, a resident of Nepal, Sabahuddin later realised, was an ISI agent and an associate of Lashkar’s chief accountant, a man named Yakub. ‘Vinod paid a Nepali youth Rs 65,000 to help me cross over. Finally, I managed to enter India.’

Should more Moshes cry for their Immas?

I sit here on my desk and wonder whether I am just wasting my time. A few hundred articles on the Mumbai terror attack and almost two months gone, the eyeball to eyeball confrontation continues with our not so friendly neighbor.
When the terrorists stormed into Mumbai, I was watching television at my home in Bangalore. Initially like everyone I too thought it was some gun battle between gangsters in Mumbai. But when the confirmation regarding the use of an AK-47 rifle started to flow in, my mind immediately rushed to a Supreme Court judgment which had stated in clear terms that everytime an AK-47 rifle is used it is an act of terror, irrespective of who is using it.
As I sat down to file my story, it occurred to me that this was really big and I would have to rush to Mumbai. The next few hours was pure mayhem. People getting killed, police men being gunned down and innocents running helter skelter in search of bullets.
It could not get bigger than this. I personally would not dismiss this as a terrorist attack. For me it was more of a war against the nation. Engaging the army, NSG, fire force, Marcos and the police force for three long days is not something that one gets to witness every day and that too in the heart of a city.
I spoke to a couple of experts on what was happening. Maloy Krishna Dhar, the former joint director of the Intelligence Bureau in India told me the next morning, “Mr Nanjappa, terror has come a complete circle in India. They started off with a bomb blast and then they graduated to serial bombings and today it is a full fledged Fidayeen attack. This just marks that terror has come a full circle in India.”
Covering the attack was no ordinary feat. I was assigned the Taj Mahal hotel along with my good friend Krishna Kumar. Once at the Taj, I looked at the marvelous structure with shock. There was fire all over, and the constant sound of grenades and gun shots just filled the air. It was a full fledged war and a bloody battle that was going on inside the Taj. We could do nothing but sit and wait. Trust me we were unable to sleep for the next 60 hours as we did not want to miss a single piece of the action. The next 60 hours was just a waiting game.
While we continued to wait for the operation to get over, some television channels decided to go on air and proclaim that the action had come to an end. The flurry of calls from my office started to flow in asking whether the operation was really over. We were sure that it was not done as we could still hear firing. However being reporters we are never sure of anything unless and until we have a confirmation. So we ran up to one of the ATS sleuths who was standing outside with an AK-47 rifle. With a lot of hesitation we asked him, “ sir is the operation over?” His reply, “ who told you.” We then said, “ sir it is on the television.” He gave us a naughty grin and said, “ no wonder my wife keeps calling me every now and then. She too saw something like this on TV and asked what I was still doing there despite the operation getting over. Accha toh yeh confusion hai. Go back and wait, it still a long way to go before the operation is over.”
He was so right. The operation went on for another whole day. As we continued to wait, the good news of the operation getting over finally came with the NSG commandoes coming out of the Taj and showing the victory sign.
The bloody battle came to an end and then began the investigation into the case. With this the stories too started to flow. Ajmal Kasab the lone surviving terrorist turned out to be pretty informative. The Mumbai cops grilled the man and he sang. Then there was information pouring in from the IB. Just when we thought that the maximum had been pulled out, the Uttar Pradesh police came out with some shocking information. Three men in their custody, Sabahuddin, Fahim Ansari and Imran Shehzad who had been arrested after undertaking the CRPF attack case in Rampur had apparently told them they had conducted a recee in Mumbai a couple of months back. The sketches and videos provided by them was sent to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and this was used finally by them to attack Mumbai.
The Pakistan link was strong and everything right from the tooth brush to the bullet indicated that the attack was launched from Pakistan. Today a few hundred stories down, it is actually quite depressing to note that India continues to talk it out with its neighbours and is still trying to increase diplomatic pressure. India in my view needs to carry out surgical strikes in Pakistan so that at least the terror cams are destroyed.
Why have so many people given up their lives? Why did policemen sacrifice their lives? Why should children go to bed without the love of their parents? Why should baby Moshe cry for its Imma every night? Don’t you think the time has come to rise and do something about this horrible menace called terrorism which I can swear by my Mother has its roots in Pakistan. India has to act and needs to act fast before the terrorists say once again, “ lets strike them again, they don’t act anyway.”

Yesterday (Tokyo)

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The terror jigsaw with Imran Shehzad

Imran Shehzad, who was assigned to blow up the Bombay Stock Exchange, also played a role in planning the Mumbai [Images] attacks.

Sources in both the Uttar Pradesh [Images] and Karnataka police told rediff.com that Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed have spoken at length about the role played by Shehzad in both the Mumbai attacks and the attack on a Central Reserve Police Force camp at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, last January.
Shehzad, according to the UP police, is a resident of Bhimbar in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Along with Mohammad Farooq Bhatti, a resident of Gunjanwala, Pakistan, Shehzad was instructed by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images] to bomb the Bombay Stock Exchange [Images]. They were asked to meet Sabahuddin Ahmed before they carried out the attack.

Bhatti and Shehzad were asked to help with the CRPF camp attack and also assist in surveying likely targets in Mumbai.

In his confession Sabahuddin says he was told by Lashkar terrorists based in Pakistan to meet Bhatti and Shehzad and give them instructions. Both men met Sabahuddin in Nepal for the first time.

Sabahuddin says he took the duo to meet a man named Suhail at Buntwal in Nepal where they were told about their role in the CRPF camp attack.

Suhail took the two men to Rampur. He rented a house in Rampur for the duo while they awaited further instructions. During the waiting period Bhatti and Shehzad were asked to assist Ansari who had begun conducting a survey of possible targets in Mumbai.

Shehzad — who was in contact with Imran Mian, the Lashkar’s man in Bangladesh — was told to activate sleeper cells in Mumbai so that its members could help Ansari conduct the survey. He was told that he would act as the liaison between Ansari and Sabahuddin.

Sabahuddin told his interrogators that the Lashkar planners did not initially want the terrorists carrying weapons into Mumbai.

With Shehzad and Bhatti’s help, Sabahuddin smuggled in AK-47 rifles from Pakistan through Nepal.

Sabahuddin instructed Shehzad and Bhatti to hide the weapons near a lake in Rampur. He planned to retrieve the weapons after the CRPF camp attack and hand them over to the Mumbai attackers who were to arrive in the city in September.

Immediately after the CRPF attack, Sabahuddin asked Shehzad to retrieve the weapons. He also told Shehzad to store the AK-47 rifles at Suhail’s brother-in-law’s house in Uttar Pradesh and await orders.

Before the weapons could be retrieved, investigators say Shehzad was arrested. As a result, the attack on the Bombay Stock Exchange was averted, but the Mumbai attacks were moved from September to November.