http://twocircles.net/
By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Muhammed Zarar Sidibapa, a resident of Karnataka, has sued The Hindu newspaper’s Editor-in-chief N Ram and its reporter Praveen Swami for defamation to the tune of Rs 5 crore. Sidibapa has on 7th Dec. 2011 sent a legal notice to the national English language daily demanding also an unconditional apology for a front-page story published on 1st December 2011.
“Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa — a Karnataka resident also known by the alias Yasin Bhatkal and the commander of the cell, who is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005 — however escaped arrest, the police said,” Praveen Swami had written in his 1st Dec. story titled ‘Breakthrough in 2010 attacks raises fears of renewed jihadist campaign’ published in The Hindu.
I am not fugitive, I am very much present in Bhatkal
Bhatkal (Karnataka) native Muhammed Zarar Sidibapa, in the legal notice, said he is neither a fugitive nor a terrorist. He comes from a respectable family and he is very much present at his home in Bhatkal. He says he has been doing business in Dubai. So the allegations against him has caused him mental agony and brought disrepute to his family whose surname is Sidibapa.
He has sent the legal notice claiming the damages of Rs 5 crore "for the horrible mental agony caused to our client by declaring him to be absconding terrorist."
The legal notice mentions that Mr. Muhammad Zarar Sidibapa S/o Shamsuddin Sidibapa resides at Jali Road, Maqdoom Colony, Bhatkal, Karnataka.
"Our client is a permanent resident of Bhatkal. He comes from respectable family of Bhatkal. Our client is very much present in Bhatkal in his residence. Your paper has published a highly defamatory report on 01-12-2011 on the front page under the headline ‘Breakthrough in 2010 attacks raises fears of renewed jihadist campaign’. In this article Second of you (Praveen Swami) has deliberately and with the sole intention of defaming our client and to further incite hatred among the people and police towards our client Mr. Muhammad Zarar Sidibapa published the article claiming that our client is a fugitive and further that our client is the commander of Indian Mujahideen and that he is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005. Our client is neither a fugitive nor is the commander of the Indian Mujahideen nor does he have the alias of Yasin Bhatkal," says the legal notice.
I am not a terrorist,
Referring to police, Praveen Swami had written that Pakistani national Mohammed Adil picked from Madhubani in Bihar last month was dispatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell.
“Adil is alleged to have had past relationships with both the Jaish-e-Muhammad and organised crime groups. He, the police said, was living under cover in Madhubani, Bihar, since 2010, when he was despatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell,” Swami had claimed.
In his second story published on page 14 on the same day titled “Delhi arrests cast light on jihadists' ‘Karachi Project' Praveen Swami continuing from his last story had said: “In the hour before the police raided the bomb-making factory he ran on the fringes of the Bhadra forests near Chikmagalur in Karnataka, key Indian Mujahideen operative Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa slipped away on a bus bound for Mangalore — and then, across the Bangladesh border, to the safety of a safe house run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Karachi.”
Mr Sidibapa, in the legal notice, refutes all these charges.
"Similarly on page 14 on the same day under the headline 'Delhi arrests cast light on jihadists' ‘Karachi Project' the Second of you (Praveen Swami) has falsely and with the deliberate inention to defame and create animosity against our client written that our client ran a bomb making factory on the fringes of the Bhadra forests near Chikmanglur. You have further falstely alleged our client escaped from the police to Bangladesh and stayed in a safe house of Lashkar-e-Taiba. You hv further falsely asserted that Sidibapa is back in India commanding the Jihadidst Cell responsible for major terrosit attacks since 26/11," says the notice.
"Our client is totally unaware and has nothing to do with any terror network or the Indian Mujahideen. The above article therefor is not only defamatory but is also designed to cause maximum damage to the standing of our client and his family in Bhatkal and Dubai where he earns a living."
In the legal notice, Mr Sidibapa claims he has never been accused of any crime in his entire lifetime. "Our client is a peace loving citizen who hsas led an impeccable life and has never been accused of any crime in his entire lifetime."
Publish apology and pay Rs 5 crore or face legal proceeding
Mr Sidibapa has demanded damages in a sum of Rs 5 crore failing which he will initiate legal proceedings against the respondents.
"We call upon you to pay liquidated damages in a sum of Rs five cor to our client for the horrible mental agony caused to our client by declaring him to be absconding terrorist failing which our client will initate legal proceedings against you," says the notice announcing that Mr Sidibapa is filing separate criminal case for criminal defamation under section 499 and 500 of the IPC.
While N Ram and Praveen Swami have reportedly said they have no information about the notice, S Thyagarajan, Associate Editor, The Hindu, Chennai, however, acknowledged receipt of the notice adding that the group’s lawyers were preparing for a reply, said a news report in Tehelka.
Those acquitted of terror charges should also follow the suit
Civil rights activists have welcomed the step of Sidibapa and said that families of those terror suspects who say they are innocent should come up and follow the suit.
“Yes, families of those youths who have been branded terrorist and put behind bars should come out and if they are innocent they should file damage suits against the media for projecting them as terrorist,” says Nayyar Fatmi, Patna-based eminent social activist. Going ahead, he says that even those who have been acquitted of terror charges by the court should follow the suit.
“Those acquitted of terror charges should also file damage suit because when they were arrested they were declared terrorist but when they were released none took notice of them. Once one is declared terrorist, the stigma carries with him even after acquittal. So heavy damages suits can be deterrent for the media,” said Fatmi who will shortly lead a fact-finding team of civil rights activists to the districts of Bihar from where some alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists were arrested by the police in last three weeks.
Mr Akhlaque Ahmed, secretary, Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) agrees and says the victims should file damage suits against police and administration also whose biased attitude spoiled their life and career.
“After having been branded as terrorist and then arrest and imprisonment hugely damaged their social life and career. Just acquittal cannot make up the damage. They should file damage lawsuit against media, police and government,” said Mr Ahmed who is based in Delhi.
But he also adds that such steps can’t be expected from the victims and their families as after the trauma they are almost broken. Mr Ahmed says the groups who claim to work for social justice and civil rights should come forward to help the victims.
“Civil groups and those working for social justice should help the victims get damages from those who spoiled their life and career. They include media, police and government,” he says. APCR has been providing legal help to some terror victims.
Damage lawsuit filed by alleged terror mastermind Muhammed Zarar Sidibapa against The Hindu
The two referred stories of Praveen Swami:
Breakthrough in 2010 attacks raises fears of renewed jihadist campaign
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
NEW DELHI, November 30, 2011
Praveen Swami
Delhi Police investigators have announced the arrest of a terrorist cell that they claim was responsible for a string of nationwide attacks last year — raising fears that Pakistan-based jihadist groups may be preparing for a renewed escalation of operations against India.
The Delhi Police's élite Special Cell announced on Wednesday that it had held six men, including Karachi-based Jaish-e-Muhammad operative Muhammad Adil, on the suspicion of having carried out three major attacks last year: a shooting at Delhi's historic Jama Masjid in September; the serial bombs outside Bangalore's Chinnaswami Stadium in April; and the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune in February.
Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa — a Karnataka resident also known by the alias Yasin Bhatkal and the commander of the cell, who is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005 — however escaped arrest, the police said.
Adil is alleged to have had past relationships with both the Jaish-e-Muhammad and organised crime groups. He, the police said, was living under cover in Madhubani, Bihar, since 2010, when he was despatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell.
Bihar residents Mohammad Siddiqi, Irshad Khan, Gauhar Aziz Khomani, Gayur Jamali and Abdur Rahman were held in separate raids in New Delhi and Chennai. The Delhi Police said they had recovered several kg of explosives, ammunition, two assault rifles and a pistol from a safe house used by the cell.
The case is the second involving a Pakistan national in recent weeks. Earlier, the National Investigation Agency said fugitive Jammu and Kashmir-based terror commander Ghulam Sarwar, a resident of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, had carried out the bombing of the Delhi High Court in September.
Sarwar, interestingly, possessed fake documents identifying him as a Bihar resident, and travelled to meet still-unidentified contacts in the State — raising the prospect that he may have had links to the cell held in Delhi.
Wednesday's arrests are the third in a series linked to the Pune bombings —all at apparent odds with each other. Maharashtra prosecutors had earlier charged local resident Himayat Baig with having carried out the bombing in Pune, naming Siddibapa as his commander. Elements of their account, though, sit ill with the Delhi Police's findings. For example, Maharashtra Police investigators said Baig was paid to source bomb-making equipment to fabricate an explosive device at his cyber-café. The discovery of a bomb-factory in Delhi, though, puts this version in some doubt.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters on Wednesday that the six arrested men were suspected of having been “involved in February 13, 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune.”
Earlier this year, though, Mr Chidambaram told Parliament the Maharashtra Police had solved the Pune bombing — following on from an earlier faux pax in which he complimented investigators on having arrested Siddibapa's older brother, Abdul Samad Siddibapa, in connection with the case. Abdul Samad Siddibapa was later cleared of all charges and released.
(With inputs from Vinay Kumar in New Delhi and Amruta Byatnal in Pune)
****
Delhi arrests cast light on jihadists' ‘Karachi Project'
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
NEW DELHI, December 1, 2011
Praveen Swami
Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commanders based in Pakistan planned attacks in India, investigators say
In the hour before the police raided the bomb-making factory he ran on the fringes of the Bhadra forests near Chikmagalur in Karnataka, key Indian Mujahideen operative Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa slipped away on a bus bound for Mangalore — and then, across the Bangladesh border, to the safety of a safe house run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Karachi.
Delhi Police investigators claimed on Wednesday to have found evidence that Siddibapa is back in India, commanding the jihadist cell responsible for three major terrorist attacks since 26/11: multiple bombs placed outside the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore; an incident of shooting at visitors to Delhi's historic Jama Masjid on the eve of the Commonwealth Games; and, most lethal of all, the improvised explosive device that ripped through a Pune café in February 2010, killing 17 people.
Siddibapa escaped the Delhi Police-led raids that resulted in the arrest of seven alleged members of the cell over the weekend, including small-time Karachi gangster-turned-terrorist Muhammad Adil.
The still unfolding investigation into the cell he commanded, though, has made clear what 26/11 terrorist David Headley called “the Karachi Project” is still flourishing — the war by Pakistan-based terrorist groups like the LeT against India.
The loyal lieutenant
More than three years after police investigators first identified Siddibapa as a terror suspect, little is known about the man alleged to have played a central role in the Indian Mujahideen's urban terror campaign that claimed hundreds of lives in 10 cities between 2005 and 2008.
Educated at the well-respected Anjuman Hami-e-Muslimeen school in the affluent coastal Karnataka town of Bhatkal, Siddibapa left for Pune as a teenager. He was later introduced to other members of the Indian Mujahideen as an engineer but the Pune police have found no documentation suggesting he had ever studied in the city. Instead, the police say, Siddibapa spent much of his time with a childhood friend, Unani medicine practitioner-turned-Islamist proselytiser Iqbal Ismail Shahbandri.
Iqbal Shahbandri and his brother Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri, now the Indian Mujahideen's top military commander in Karachi, became ideological mentors for many young Islamists in Pune and Mumbai, many of them highly educated professionals.
The brothers were unlikely terrorists: their father, Ismail Shahbandri, had set up a leather tanning factory in Mumbai's Kurla area in the mid-1970s and struggled to give his children a head start. Riyaz Shahbandri went on to obtain a civil engineering degree from Mumbai's Saboo Siddiqui Engineering College. In 2002, he was married to Nasuha Ismail, daughter of an electronics store owner in Bhatkal's Dubai Market.
Nasuha Ismail's brother, Shafiq Ahmad, is believed to have drawn Riyaz Shahbandri into the Students Islamic Movement of India. Riyaz Shahbandri first met his Indian Mujahideen co-founders, Abdul Subhan Qureshi and Sadiq Israr Sheikh, in the months before his marriage. Later, he also made contact with ganglord-turned-jihadist Amir Raza Khan. In the wake of the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, the men set about sending recruits to Lashkar camps in Pakistan.
Early in the summer of 2004, investigators say, the core members of the network, which was later to call itself the Indian Mujahideen, met at Bhatkal's cheerfully named Jolly Beach to discuss their plans. Siddibapa had overall charge — illustrating his status as the brothers' most loyal lieutenant.
From the testimony of Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley to Indian and United States investigators, it is clear the terror project continued long after several Indian Mujahideen operatives were arrested in 2008 — and the Indian Mujahideen leadership fled to Karachi. Headley told the National Investigation Agency that there were two distinct, competing jihadist projects targeting India, both headquartered out of Karachi.
Lashkar commanders, Headley said, ran one Karachi Project, using dozens of cadre recruited from the ranks of Islamist groups in India. He claimed the 26/11 assault team initially included an “Indian, possibly from Maharashtra.” Headley also said another Maharashtra resident, who used the alias Abu Ajmal, trained with him at the Lashkar's intelligence-tradecraft in August 2003.
The second Karachi Project, NIA documents reveal, was run by a retired Pakistani military officer called Abdur Rehman Hashim, also known by the code name ‘Pasha.'
This second group of Indian jihadists, Headley told the NIA, was a “personal set-up of Pasha, and it is independent of the LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba].”
Major Hashim, according to Headley's account, had served with the 6 Baloch Regiment until 2002, when he refused to lead his troops into combat against Taliban fleeing from the Tora Bora complex in Afghanistan — the last stronghold of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in that country. Later, having been demoted to captain, he resigned his commission and joined the Lashkar as an instructor — training, among others, the men who attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's rally in Srinagar in 2004.
But Major Hashim later fell out with the Lashkar — incensed, like many jihadists, by its refusal to take on the Pakistani state and the western forces in Afghanistan. He threw his weight behind al-Qaeda's Brigade 313, which later claimed credit for the Pune bombing.
‘Fugitive IM commander’ sues N Ram and Praveen Swami
Submitted by admin7 on 20 December 2011 - 1:19pmBy Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Muhammed Zarar Sidibapa, a resident of Karnataka, has sued The Hindu newspaper’s Editor-in-chief N Ram and its reporter Praveen Swami for defamation to the tune of Rs 5 crore. Sidibapa has on 7th Dec. 2011 sent a legal notice to the national English language daily demanding also an unconditional apology for a front-page story published on 1st December 2011.
“Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa — a Karnataka resident also known by the alias Yasin Bhatkal and the commander of the cell, who is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005 — however escaped arrest, the police said,” Praveen Swami had written in his 1st Dec. story titled ‘Breakthrough in 2010 attacks raises fears of renewed jihadist campaign’ published in The Hindu.
I am not fugitive, I am very much present in Bhatkal
Bhatkal (Karnataka) native Muhammed Zarar Sidibapa, in the legal notice, said he is neither a fugitive nor a terrorist. He comes from a respectable family and he is very much present at his home in Bhatkal. He says he has been doing business in Dubai. So the allegations against him has caused him mental agony and brought disrepute to his family whose surname is Sidibapa.
He has sent the legal notice claiming the damages of Rs 5 crore "for the horrible mental agony caused to our client by declaring him to be absconding terrorist."
The legal notice mentions that Mr. Muhammad Zarar Sidibapa S/o Shamsuddin Sidibapa resides at Jali Road, Maqdoom Colony, Bhatkal, Karnataka.
"Our client is a permanent resident of Bhatkal. He comes from respectable family of Bhatkal. Our client is very much present in Bhatkal in his residence. Your paper has published a highly defamatory report on 01-12-2011 on the front page under the headline ‘Breakthrough in 2010 attacks raises fears of renewed jihadist campaign’. In this article Second of you (Praveen Swami) has deliberately and with the sole intention of defaming our client and to further incite hatred among the people and police towards our client Mr. Muhammad Zarar Sidibapa published the article claiming that our client is a fugitive and further that our client is the commander of Indian Mujahideen and that he is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005. Our client is neither a fugitive nor is the commander of the Indian Mujahideen nor does he have the alias of Yasin Bhatkal," says the legal notice.
I am not a terrorist,
Referring to police, Praveen Swami had written that Pakistani national Mohammed Adil picked from Madhubani in Bihar last month was dispatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell.
“Adil is alleged to have had past relationships with both the Jaish-e-Muhammad and organised crime groups. He, the police said, was living under cover in Madhubani, Bihar, since 2010, when he was despatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell,” Swami had claimed.
In his second story published on page 14 on the same day titled “Delhi arrests cast light on jihadists' ‘Karachi Project' Praveen Swami continuing from his last story had said: “In the hour before the police raided the bomb-making factory he ran on the fringes of the Bhadra forests near Chikmagalur in Karnataka, key Indian Mujahideen operative Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa slipped away on a bus bound for Mangalore — and then, across the Bangladesh border, to the safety of a safe house run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Karachi.”
Mr Sidibapa, in the legal notice, refutes all these charges.
"Similarly on page 14 on the same day under the headline 'Delhi arrests cast light on jihadists' ‘Karachi Project' the Second of you (Praveen Swami) has falsely and with the deliberate inention to defame and create animosity against our client written that our client ran a bomb making factory on the fringes of the Bhadra forests near Chikmanglur. You have further falstely alleged our client escaped from the police to Bangladesh and stayed in a safe house of Lashkar-e-Taiba. You hv further falsely asserted that Sidibapa is back in India commanding the Jihadidst Cell responsible for major terrosit attacks since 26/11," says the notice.
"Our client is totally unaware and has nothing to do with any terror network or the Indian Mujahideen. The above article therefor is not only defamatory but is also designed to cause maximum damage to the standing of our client and his family in Bhatkal and Dubai where he earns a living."
In the legal notice, Mr Sidibapa claims he has never been accused of any crime in his entire lifetime. "Our client is a peace loving citizen who hsas led an impeccable life and has never been accused of any crime in his entire lifetime."
Publish apology and pay Rs 5 crore or face legal proceeding
Mr Sidibapa has demanded damages in a sum of Rs 5 crore failing which he will initiate legal proceedings against the respondents.
"We call upon you to pay liquidated damages in a sum of Rs five cor to our client for the horrible mental agony caused to our client by declaring him to be absconding terrorist failing which our client will initate legal proceedings against you," says the notice announcing that Mr Sidibapa is filing separate criminal case for criminal defamation under section 499 and 500 of the IPC.
While N Ram and Praveen Swami have reportedly said they have no information about the notice, S Thyagarajan, Associate Editor, The Hindu, Chennai, however, acknowledged receipt of the notice adding that the group’s lawyers were preparing for a reply, said a news report in Tehelka.
Those acquitted of terror charges should also follow the suit
Civil rights activists have welcomed the step of Sidibapa and said that families of those terror suspects who say they are innocent should come up and follow the suit.
“Yes, families of those youths who have been branded terrorist and put behind bars should come out and if they are innocent they should file damage suits against the media for projecting them as terrorist,” says Nayyar Fatmi, Patna-based eminent social activist. Going ahead, he says that even those who have been acquitted of terror charges by the court should follow the suit.
“Those acquitted of terror charges should also file damage suit because when they were arrested they were declared terrorist but when they were released none took notice of them. Once one is declared terrorist, the stigma carries with him even after acquittal. So heavy damages suits can be deterrent for the media,” said Fatmi who will shortly lead a fact-finding team of civil rights activists to the districts of Bihar from where some alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists were arrested by the police in last three weeks.
Mr Akhlaque Ahmed, secretary, Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) agrees and says the victims should file damage suits against police and administration also whose biased attitude spoiled their life and career.
“After having been branded as terrorist and then arrest and imprisonment hugely damaged their social life and career. Just acquittal cannot make up the damage. They should file damage lawsuit against media, police and government,” said Mr Ahmed who is based in Delhi.
But he also adds that such steps can’t be expected from the victims and their families as after the trauma they are almost broken. Mr Ahmed says the groups who claim to work for social justice and civil rights should come forward to help the victims.
“Civil groups and those working for social justice should help the victims get damages from those who spoiled their life and career. They include media, police and government,” he says. APCR has been providing legal help to some terror victims.
Damage lawsuit filed by alleged terror mastermind Muhammed Zarar Sidibapa against The Hindu
The two referred stories of Praveen Swami:
Breakthrough in 2010 attacks raises fears of renewed jihadist campaign
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
NEW DELHI, November 30, 2011
Praveen Swami
Delhi Police investigators have announced the arrest of a terrorist cell that they claim was responsible for a string of nationwide attacks last year — raising fears that Pakistan-based jihadist groups may be preparing for a renewed escalation of operations against India.
The Delhi Police's élite Special Cell announced on Wednesday that it had held six men, including Karachi-based Jaish-e-Muhammad operative Muhammad Adil, on the suspicion of having carried out three major attacks last year: a shooting at Delhi's historic Jama Masjid in September; the serial bombs outside Bangalore's Chinnaswami Stadium in April; and the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune in February.
Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commander Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa — a Karnataka resident also known by the alias Yasin Bhatkal and the commander of the cell, who is wanted for his alleged role in a string of urban bombings that began in 2005 — however escaped arrest, the police said.
Adil is alleged to have had past relationships with both the Jaish-e-Muhammad and organised crime groups. He, the police said, was living under cover in Madhubani, Bihar, since 2010, when he was despatched to India by Indian Mujahideen commanders in Karachi to aid Siddibapa's cell.
Bihar residents Mohammad Siddiqi, Irshad Khan, Gauhar Aziz Khomani, Gayur Jamali and Abdur Rahman were held in separate raids in New Delhi and Chennai. The Delhi Police said they had recovered several kg of explosives, ammunition, two assault rifles and a pistol from a safe house used by the cell.
The case is the second involving a Pakistan national in recent weeks. Earlier, the National Investigation Agency said fugitive Jammu and Kashmir-based terror commander Ghulam Sarwar, a resident of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, had carried out the bombing of the Delhi High Court in September.
Sarwar, interestingly, possessed fake documents identifying him as a Bihar resident, and travelled to meet still-unidentified contacts in the State — raising the prospect that he may have had links to the cell held in Delhi.
Wednesday's arrests are the third in a series linked to the Pune bombings —all at apparent odds with each other. Maharashtra prosecutors had earlier charged local resident Himayat Baig with having carried out the bombing in Pune, naming Siddibapa as his commander. Elements of their account, though, sit ill with the Delhi Police's findings. For example, Maharashtra Police investigators said Baig was paid to source bomb-making equipment to fabricate an explosive device at his cyber-café. The discovery of a bomb-factory in Delhi, though, puts this version in some doubt.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters on Wednesday that the six arrested men were suspected of having been “involved in February 13, 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune.”
Earlier this year, though, Mr Chidambaram told Parliament the Maharashtra Police had solved the Pune bombing — following on from an earlier faux pax in which he complimented investigators on having arrested Siddibapa's older brother, Abdul Samad Siddibapa, in connection with the case. Abdul Samad Siddibapa was later cleared of all charges and released.
(With inputs from Vinay Kumar in New Delhi and Amruta Byatnal in Pune)
****
Delhi arrests cast light on jihadists' ‘Karachi Project'
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
NEW DELHI, December 1, 2011
Praveen Swami
Fugitive Indian Mujahideen commanders based in Pakistan planned attacks in India, investigators say
In the hour before the police raided the bomb-making factory he ran on the fringes of the Bhadra forests near Chikmagalur in Karnataka, key Indian Mujahideen operative Muhammad Zarar Siddibapa slipped away on a bus bound for Mangalore — and then, across the Bangladesh border, to the safety of a safe house run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Karachi.
Delhi Police investigators claimed on Wednesday to have found evidence that Siddibapa is back in India, commanding the jihadist cell responsible for three major terrorist attacks since 26/11: multiple bombs placed outside the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore; an incident of shooting at visitors to Delhi's historic Jama Masjid on the eve of the Commonwealth Games; and, most lethal of all, the improvised explosive device that ripped through a Pune café in February 2010, killing 17 people.
Siddibapa escaped the Delhi Police-led raids that resulted in the arrest of seven alleged members of the cell over the weekend, including small-time Karachi gangster-turned-terrorist Muhammad Adil.
The still unfolding investigation into the cell he commanded, though, has made clear what 26/11 terrorist David Headley called “the Karachi Project” is still flourishing — the war by Pakistan-based terrorist groups like the LeT against India.
The loyal lieutenant
More than three years after police investigators first identified Siddibapa as a terror suspect, little is known about the man alleged to have played a central role in the Indian Mujahideen's urban terror campaign that claimed hundreds of lives in 10 cities between 2005 and 2008.
Educated at the well-respected Anjuman Hami-e-Muslimeen school in the affluent coastal Karnataka town of Bhatkal, Siddibapa left for Pune as a teenager. He was later introduced to other members of the Indian Mujahideen as an engineer but the Pune police have found no documentation suggesting he had ever studied in the city. Instead, the police say, Siddibapa spent much of his time with a childhood friend, Unani medicine practitioner-turned-Islamist proselytiser Iqbal Ismail Shahbandri.
Iqbal Shahbandri and his brother Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri, now the Indian Mujahideen's top military commander in Karachi, became ideological mentors for many young Islamists in Pune and Mumbai, many of them highly educated professionals.
The brothers were unlikely terrorists: their father, Ismail Shahbandri, had set up a leather tanning factory in Mumbai's Kurla area in the mid-1970s and struggled to give his children a head start. Riyaz Shahbandri went on to obtain a civil engineering degree from Mumbai's Saboo Siddiqui Engineering College. In 2002, he was married to Nasuha Ismail, daughter of an electronics store owner in Bhatkal's Dubai Market.
Nasuha Ismail's brother, Shafiq Ahmad, is believed to have drawn Riyaz Shahbandri into the Students Islamic Movement of India. Riyaz Shahbandri first met his Indian Mujahideen co-founders, Abdul Subhan Qureshi and Sadiq Israr Sheikh, in the months before his marriage. Later, he also made contact with ganglord-turned-jihadist Amir Raza Khan. In the wake of the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, the men set about sending recruits to Lashkar camps in Pakistan.
Early in the summer of 2004, investigators say, the core members of the network, which was later to call itself the Indian Mujahideen, met at Bhatkal's cheerfully named Jolly Beach to discuss their plans. Siddibapa had overall charge — illustrating his status as the brothers' most loyal lieutenant.
From the testimony of Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley to Indian and United States investigators, it is clear the terror project continued long after several Indian Mujahideen operatives were arrested in 2008 — and the Indian Mujahideen leadership fled to Karachi. Headley told the National Investigation Agency that there were two distinct, competing jihadist projects targeting India, both headquartered out of Karachi.
Lashkar commanders, Headley said, ran one Karachi Project, using dozens of cadre recruited from the ranks of Islamist groups in India. He claimed the 26/11 assault team initially included an “Indian, possibly from Maharashtra.” Headley also said another Maharashtra resident, who used the alias Abu Ajmal, trained with him at the Lashkar's intelligence-tradecraft in August 2003.
The second Karachi Project, NIA documents reveal, was run by a retired Pakistani military officer called Abdur Rehman Hashim, also known by the code name ‘Pasha.'
This second group of Indian jihadists, Headley told the NIA, was a “personal set-up of Pasha, and it is independent of the LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba].”
Major Hashim, according to Headley's account, had served with the 6 Baloch Regiment until 2002, when he refused to lead his troops into combat against Taliban fleeing from the Tora Bora complex in Afghanistan — the last stronghold of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in that country. Later, having been demoted to captain, he resigned his commission and joined the Lashkar as an instructor — training, among others, the men who attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's rally in Srinagar in 2004.
But Major Hashim later fell out with the Lashkar — incensed, like many jihadists, by its refusal to take on the Pakistani state and the western forces in Afghanistan. He threw his weight behind al-Qaeda's Brigade 313, which later claimed credit for the Pune bombing.
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