Hundreds of Muslims rampage in Jaipur, 30 policemen hurt

Over 30 policemen injured in stone pelting at Jaipur

Jaipur, Aug 12 (PTI) Over 30 policemen were injured today in stone pelting in Idgah area here after tension erupted following a rumour that a religious place of a minority community in nearby Chainpura village had been demolished.

Residents of the area, numbering over one thousand, suddenly began pelting stones at the police and damaging vehicles when the officials were going to convince them that no such incident had taken place and it was just a rumour, Jaipur Collector Kuldeep Ranka said.

Over 30 policemen including SHO rank officials were injured in the stone-pelting, he said adding that police launched lathicharge to control the situation.

Five persons have been arrested in connection with the incident, he said.

Describing the situation as tense but under control, SP Jaipur (North) Ashok Naruka said extra force has been deployed in the area to keep a vigil.

11 year old Muslim girl set on fire by grandad for wearing lipstick in Jaipur

11-yr-old set on fire for wearing lipstick in Jaipur
Swati Vashishta / CNN-IBN

Sat, Oct 18, 2008
BURNT OVER LIPSTICK: Doctors say Nazmeen’s condition continues to be critical.

Jaipur: Eleven-year-old Nazmeen can barely speak. She suffered 99 per cent burn injuries after her neighbour set her on fire – all because she dared to wear lipstick.

Nazmeen was attacked by the man she called nana (grandfather). On Friday, Saleem told the little girl not to wear lipstick. When she defied him, in a fit of rage he allegedly molested her before pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire.

“He was beating me and when I said that I would complain to my father, he started abusing him. Please punish him,” says Nazmeen.

Police have arrested 55-year-old Saleem, who runs a shop in the Ghatgate area.

Investigating officer on the case, NS Nagora said, “We are looking into the molestation charges as well. Investigations are on and a police team has just been sent to the hospital again.”

Nazmeen is now admitted in a hospital, but doctors say her condition continues to be critical.

Superintendent of Police, Mohan Singh said the girl’s Saleem has been charged with molestation and attempt to murder.

“The accused has been charged under section 307 – attempt to murder – and section 354 – molestation. We interrogated neighbours and the family and they have confirmed what happened,” Mohan Singh said.

Meanwhile, Woman and Child Development Minister, Renuka Chaudhary said, “Lawmakers should such people a lesson. There is no law in the country that states that a girl cannot wear something unless it is absolutely indecent. It is very shocking, backward and illiterate.
Set on fire for being scantily dressed!
October 18, 2008 18:19 IST

In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old girl was set ablaze by a relative in Jaipur, who was apparently enraged with her being ‘scantily dressed’ and wearing a lipstick, police said on Saturday.

The girl identified as Nazmeen suffered 90 per cent burns and was stated to be in a critical condition, Investigating Officer Shammi Khan said.

Police have arrested Salim alias Azzi (55), who allegedly poured kerosene on the girl and set her afire at Dhanna Das Ki Bagachi in Jaipur [Images] on Friday, he said.

Khan said Salim, who runs a grocery shop from his house, took the girl into a room there and asked her younger brother to sit outside. After bolting the room from inside, he poured kerosene on the girl and set her afire.

Engulfed in flames, the girl managed to unbolt the door and ran outside crying for help.

The neighbours came to her rescue and one of them was also injured while trying to put out the flames, he said.

Khan said Salim was a distant relative of the victim’s family and the girl addressed him as ‘nana’ (maternal grand father).

A case of attempt to murder has been registered against Salim, Khan said.

The girl’s father alleged in his statement that the accused set her daughter ablaze after she resisted his attempt to molest her.Khan, however, said the girl had, in her statement, not mentioned anything about Salim trying to molest her.
Grandad burns girl after ‘rape’ bid
19 Oct 2008, 0337 hrs IST, TNN

JAIPUR: A 55-year-old man allegedly tried to rape his 11-year-old granddaughter in the heart of Jaipur. When the girl started screaming for help, he reportedly gagged her, poured kerosene on her and then set her on fire. The girl has been admitted to Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital here with 90% burns. Doctors said her condition is “very critical”.

The shocking incident took place at Dhannadas ki Bagichi in the Lal Kothi police station area on Thursday evening. The man, Saleem, was arrested and charged with attempt to murder. On Saturday, the cops also slapped a molestation charge on the girl’s grandfather from the maternal side.

“We have conducted the girl’s medical examination. She received 90% burn injuries,” said a police source. Doctors at the SMS Hospital said it would take a lot for an 11-year-old child to survive 90% burn injuries.

According to the police, the victim was allegedly burnt by Saleem when she had gone to his shop along with her brother on Thursday evening. “The shop is located a few metres away from her house. Some people saw the girl rushing out of the shop in flames. People rushed to her rescue and somehow managed to douse the fire. She was then admitted to SMS Hospital,” a police official added.

The incident shocked residents of this densely populated area when they saw the girl screaming in pain and running. “When the women standing nearby could not help her fearing the fire would harm them, the girl frantically entered a nearby house. The owner of the house – Mohammed Qureshi – took her back outside on the road where neighbours poured water on the burning girl. In the effort to douse the fire, Qureshi also received minor burn injuries,” a police source said.

Saleem disappeared from the shop after the incident. “In her statement to the police on Friday, she alleged that Saleem burnt her when she tried on a lipstick in his shop. Her relatives, however, alleged that Saleem had taken the victim to a room at the back of his shop and tried to rape her. When she protested, he was infuriated, poured kerosene over her and set her on fire,” the police said.

The police have recovered charred clothes of the girl and a bottle of kerosene from Saleem’s shop. “We have recorded the statement of the girl and her relatives who alleged that Saleem tried to rape the girl. However, he probably could not commit the act as the girl fought back. We have booked him under section 354 (molestation) of the IPC,” Asharma Chaudhary, circle officer (Adarsh Nagar), said.

Islamic terror hub UP stalled action against Delhi suspects

Sep 15, 2008

U.P. authorities stalled action against Delhi suspects
Praveen Swami

SIMI bomb-maker Subhan visited Azamgarh to discuss Delhi bombing plan
———————————————————————–
Three men identified by two top SIMI operatives
Authorities feared their arrest might provoke communal tension
———————————————————————–

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh authorities stonewalled efforts to arrest three Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives who are emerging as key suspects in Saturday’s serial bombings in New Delhi, highly placed police sources have told The Hindu.

Delhi Police sources said that the three Azamgarh-based men — whose identities are being withheld by The Hindu to avoid compromising the investigation — had been identified as core members of an Indian Mujahideen team planning fresh attacks by two top terror commanders held in Uttar Pradesh earlier this month.

Fearing that police action against the three men might fuel tension in communally charged Azamgarh, police sources said, Uttar Pradesh authorities refused to order their arrest or detention for questioning, saying that interrogation reports from Gujarat and Rajasthan did not constitute adequate grounds for such action.

According to a senior Delhi Police official, the three men were identified by Lucknow-based businessman Shahbaz Husain, who the Rajasthan Police says had overall charge of the terror cell which carried out the Jaipur serial bombings in May, and Azamgarh cleric Abul Bashar Qasmi, identified by the Gujarat Police as the controller of the murderous serial bombings that tore Ahmedabad apart in July.

Both Qasmi and Husain told their interrogators that the three Azamgarh men had met with Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a top Mumbai-based SIMI operative, who is thought to have taught dozens of Indian Mujahideen operatives their bomb-making skills and authored the organisation’s e-mail manifestos. Qureshi, they said, had visited Azamgarh at least twice in August, soon after the Ahmedabad bombings, to discuss future attacks. New Delhi was chosen as a target during these meetings.

U.P. networks

Evidence on the central role of SIMI’s Uttar Pradesh networks in the Indian Mujahideen’s operations began to emerge in the course of the investigation into the December 2007 synchronised bombing of trial court buildings at Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi. Police learned that Jaunpur-based Mohammad Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Kazmi, using explosives provided by Jammu and Kashmir Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami commander Bashir Mir, had coordinated the trial court bombings.

Mujahid and Kazmi were held, but their arrests provoked widespread protests by local Muslims who claimed the two men were innocent. As a result of the protests, Uttar Pradesh authorities ordered police to ease back on operations targeting SIMI. Among those who thus escaped arrest was Qasmi, an Azamgarh-based seminary student-turned-SIMI-activist, who the Gujarat Police alleges was the central figure in the July 27 serial bombings in Ahmedabad.

Qasmi’s SIMI links been known to the Uttar Pradesh police since 2006, when he figured in the interrogation of Mohtasin Billa, an engineering student alleged to have facilitated that year’s serial bombings in Hyderabad. However, Qasmi was finally held only after the Gujarat Police obtained a warrant for his arrest early this month.

Police officials believe earlier action could have disrupted the networks which carried out the Ahmedabad attacks. Police in Rajasthan, too, found that the networks responsible for executing the Jaipur serial bombing stretched east to Uttar Pradesh. Late last month, investigators arrested Shahbaz Husain, the businessman who, the Rajasthan Police say, was one of the Indian Mujahideen’s key organisers.

Husain, who owned two successful businesses in Lucknow, is alleged to have helped organise the bombings in Jaipur and Ahmedabad — and, with Qureshi, co-authored the e-mail claiming responsibility for the attacks. Like Qasmi, Husain had long been known to the Uttar Pradesh police — but this knowledge failed to provoke action.

Husain’s name figured in the interrogation of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori, who was arrested from a safehouse in Indore at the end of March. Nagori identified Husain, who he referred to by the nickname ‘Shaanu,’ as the ranking head of the group’s military operations. He told police that Qureshi had trained dozens of Indian Mujahideen operatives on Husain’s orders.

Uttar Pradesh police determined that Husain was indeed a SIMI member, who was recruited into the organisation while he was a student of the Indian Institute of Mass Communications in New Delhi. Before SIMI’s proscription in 2001, police found, he briefly edited one of its English-language magazines, Islamic Movement.

Interestingly, bomb-maker Qureshi worked at the Delhi offices of SIMI during this time, after resigning a position at the Mumbai-based computer firm Datamatics. However, Uttar Pradesh authorities again held back on making an arrest, arguing that the evidence available was inadequate to justify holding a prominent member of the community.

Rajasthan Police investigators, however, were able to obtain an arrest warrant after several suspects held in Gujarat — including top local SIMI organiser Sajid Mansoori — correctly identified photographs of Husain, who they described as their ranking commander. End

Has UP emerged as a terror hub due to state’s indifference?

Sanjay Singh

Lucknow, August 26 With the arrests of alleged terrorists Mufti Abu Bashar, a resident of Azamgarh and Shahbaz Hussain, a native of Saint Kabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh is once again in focus as a terror hub of the country. While Bashar was described as an “architect” of the Ahemadabad blast by the police, Shahbaz Hussain is allegedly one of the main conspirators of the Jaipur blast.
For the first time in the last decade, Uttar Pradesh has figured as the native place of terror accused, who allegedly masterminded the terror operations in two different states of the country. Involvement of the states’ youths in terror operations outside the state has baffled the state police. “Seems Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the producer of terrorists, who mastermind the terror operations in other states,” said a senior officer of the UP police, after the arrest of Bashar.

Police sources said the state has no dearth of sleeper cells of various terror groups. Since SIMI was founded in Aligarh in 1975, the state already has a large number of its followers. “The state police swung into action to trace the followers of the SIMI’s Safdar Nagori group only after the Gujarat Police claimed that the Indian Mujaheedin was as a breakaway group of SIMI,” said a senior officer of the state’s Anti-Terror Squad.

Sources claimed places like Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Sonauli, Allahabad and Varanasi have always been a safe haven for terrorists in state’s eastern region, besides the Hapud-Moradabad-Bareilly-Rampur stretch in western UP. “Many people of the western UP have their relatives in Pakistan. They are easily lured by the ISI,” said the source.

Most of the police officers blame the successive state governments for not showing strong will power to handle the terror activities in UP. “Note the statement that the UP’s Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal had made after the arrest of Shahbaz on Monday. His emphasis was not on the arrest but on the warrant of arrest that the Jaipur Police had carried at the time of arrival in Lucknow. It shows UP Police helplessness’s in taking credit for its own achievement,” said a source in the ATS. He also told about the difficulty that his organisation was facing before laying its hand on terror suspects in UP.

According to him, both Bashar and Shahbaz were on the radar of the state police for long because other states had informed about their activities to the UP police much earlier. “Though they were under constant vigil, we could not detain them for interrogation,” added the source.

Although Chief Minister Mayawati has formed the ATS as a specialized unit to counter the growth of terror activities in the state, her government has put a question mark on the investigations into the November 23 serial blasts case. Tariq and Khalid, accused of blasts at the courts premises in Faizabad, Varanasi and Lucknow, had leveled allegations against the state police for falsely implicating them in the case. Subsequently, Mayawati had set up a judicial commission to probe the allegations, thereby affecting the credibility of her own police force.

Delhi blasts: Indian Mujahideen’s email

Full text of Indian Mujahideen email before the Ahmedabad blasts is here and the original copy with graphics and Koranic verses is here. It is imperative for all to know their Islamic agenda.

There will be more bomb attacks, warns Indian Mujahideen
14 Sep, 2008, 0000 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: After claiming responsibility for the Jaipur and Ahmedabad blasts, militant outfit Indian Mujahideen has now claimed that it is behind the series blasts in Delhi. A mere five minutes before the first blast in Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh, the terror outfit sent an email to media houses, saying “Indian Mujahideen strikes back once more.”

“Within 5 minutes from now…this time with the Message of Death, dreadfully terrorising you for your sins,” the email said. “And thus our promise will be fulfilled. Inshallah,” it read. The outfit further challenged the police and security agencies to stop the serial blasts. “Do whatever you want and stop us if you can,” the mail said. The mail, which was sent from ‘Arbi Hindi’, from the e-mail ID of al_arbi_delhi@yahoo.com, also contained a video clip and an attached document, which the group claimed was evidence of its hand in the serial blasts. The clip showed a series of photographs of victims from previous blasts along with the caption “our jihad”.

The Indian Mujahideen, in an attached document running into 13 pages, said that it is solely responsible for the serial blasts. “The Indian Mujahideen — the homegrown jehadi militia of Islam — have once again attacked to make you face the disastrous consequences of the injustice and oppression inflicted upon the Muslims all over the country,” the attached document said.

The group claimed that the Delhi blasts were the direct result of the raids carried out before and after the Ahmedabad blasts on July 26. “This accurately planned deadly strike is just another reaction to all those pre-and post-26 July harassments imposed by your ATS and police on the innocent Muslims,” the Indian Mujahideen said.

The email refers to the Amarnath land issue and violence against Christians in Orissa.

The Babri Masjid demolition and the 2002 Gujarat riots are also cited in the attached document. The document attacks the Central government and the state governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The Rajasthan, Gujarat and Mumbai ATS, which are investigating blasts cases, also come under attack from the terror outfit.

The document ends with a taunt to security agencies, saying that the security agencies till now had been unable to trace the earlier two emails it had sent before the Jaipur and Ahmedabad blasts. The terror outfit further warned of more attacks.

In a similar fashion, the Indian Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the serial blasts in Jaipur and Ahmedabad by sending emails to media houses. The emails were posted from fictitious accounts.

In the Jaipur blasts, the little known terror outfit had sent an email to two media houses. The email, apart from explaining the motive behind the blast, also included video clips showing a bicycle that was packed with explosives. The group had claimed that the footage was taken before the serial blasts in which 63 people were killed. The group had also said in the email that the blasts were meant to destroy Jaipur’s tourist industry. The group had warned India against supporting the US on the international stage.

Ahmedabad blasts email sent by Islamic terror mastermind Abu Bashir

Ahmedabad blasts email sent by Abu Bashir: Probe
2 Sep 2008, 1702 hrs IST,Times Now

AHMEDABAD: Mufti Abu Bashir Kasmi, the alleged mastermind behind July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts has admitted that he drafted the terror mails sent during the recent Ahmedabad and Jaipur blasts, according to Times Now . ( Watch )

Bashir also said that the mail was sent by a person named Subhan who is absconding, according to Times Now . Abu Bashir was arrested in Azamgarh by the UP police and is under arrest in Ahmedabad.

According to Times Now sources, Bashir has been making revelations regarding the planning and the execution of the blasts. Sources claimed that Bashir has accepted that Jaipur blasts was also his handiwork and is being ‘very co-operative’ during interrogation.

Gujarat police had on August 16 arrested Mufti Abu Bashir Kasmi and nine others and said that the SIMI network was behind the Ahmedabad serial blasts which killed 55 people.

Lucknow businessman wrote Islamic terror mail manifesto

Lucknow businessman wrote terror mail: police
Praveen Swami

Shahbaz Husain is alleged to be the overall commander of Jaipur, Ahmedabad attacks

NEW DELHI: Investigators believe a top Students Islamic Movement of India operative arrested in Lucknow on Monday was the author of a series of e-mail manifestos issued by the terror cell responsible for a series of attacks across northern and western India.

Shahbaz Husain, a Lucknow-based businessman held by the Rajasthan Police, is alleged to be the operational head of a SIMI-linked group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen, which carried out in Faizabad, Varanasi, Lucknow, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

Husain, who moved to Lucknow two years ago, and set up two successful businesses operating out of Maulvi Ganj, in the Aminabad area. One, the Snazzy Computer Training Institute, offered basic courses in information technology, and also acted as an agent for a nationwide broadband Internet service provider. The other, Zyna Career Consultants, was a human resource firm providing workers to companies in United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

But the Uttar Pradesh police say Husain also had a parallel life as a terror operative who built the complex, overlapping networks that carried out the most sustained Islamist terror bombing offensive India has ever seen.

According to police sources, he was recruited into SIMI while he was studying at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications, where he pursued a journalism diploma after obtaining a Bachelor of Sciences Degree. Before SIMI’s proscription in 2001, he briefly edited one of its English-language magazines, Islamic Movement.

Police sources said he had been placed under surveillance after the arrest of SIMI’s former general secretary, Safdar Nagori, at the end of March. During his interrogation, Nagori had identified Husain — who he referred to by the nickname ‘Shaanu’— as the ranking head of the group’s military operations.

Nagori also told police that top SIMI bomb-maker Abdul Subhan Qureshi had held a series of training camps for operatives on Husain’s orders.

However, Uttar Pradesh authorities held back on making an arrest, arguing that the evidence available was inadequate to justify the arrest of a prominent member of the community. However, the Rajasthan police obtained an arrest warrant, after several suspects held in Gujarat — including top local SIMI organiser Sajid Mansoori — correctly identified photographs of Husain, who they described as their ranking commander.

E-mail suspicions
Husain’s public e-mail address, shahbaz_hindi@yahoo.com, the Uttar Pradesh police found, bore some intriguing similarities with those used by a terrorist cell calling itself the Indian Mujahideen.

Minutes before the bombing of three trial court buildings in Uttar Pradesh in November, 2007, the Indian Mujahideen issued a document claiming responsibility for the attack, using the e-mail address guru_alHindi@yahoo.fr. The document was signed by an individual using the pseudonym ‘Guru al-Hindi.’

“Guru”, in north Indian argot, is used to refer not just to a religious leader, but to a boss or leader. ‘Hindi’, in this context, signifies a person of Indian origin.

Just before the serial bombings in Jaipur in May this year — an attack police suspect Husain directly organised — an Indian Mujahideen manifesto was issued from a similar address, guru_alhindi_jaipur@yahoo.co.uk. Again, the document was signed by ‘Guru al-Hindi.’

Later, just before the serial bombings in Ahmedabad last month, the Indian Mujahideen sent a third e-mail, this time bearing the signatures of both ‘al-Hindi’ and a second operative calling himself ‘al-Arbi’, or ‘the Arab’. Better written and designed than the earlier documents — and in PDF, rather than the Microsoft Word format — the Ahmedabad e-mail, was sent out from alarbi_gujarat@yahoo.com.

Finally, ‘al-Arbi’ sent out a fourth e-mail last week, to decry the arrest of key suspects including Abdul Bashar Qureshi, an Uttar Pradesh seminary student-turned-SIMI jihadist who was also held in Uttar Pradesh last week.

Maharastra police sources said they believe ‘al-Arbi’ is in fact Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a top SIMI bomb-maker wanted for a string of attacks since 2003.

Husain and Qureshi are emblematic of a new generation of computer-literate SIMI operatives, many of whom joined the Islamist group after experiencing religious discrimination while working at multinational corporations. Earlier this year, police arrested Peedical Abdul Shibly and Yahya Kamakutty, who had set up in Bangalore a jihad cell. It recruited at least half a dozen information technology workers through a front organisation, Sarani.

Jaipur lawyers refuse to defend Islamic terrorist behind the blasts

HC Bar Association lawyers refuse to defend blast suspects
Jaipur (PTI): Lawyers affiliated to the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association here have declared that they will not represent any of the suspects in the Jaipur serial blasts case.

“About 3,500 bar lawyers are united and have pledged that they would stay away from cases related to such heinous crime,” Association president Madhav Mitra said on Wednesday.

The Association took the decision after Shahbaz Hussain, one of the alleged masterminds of May 13 serial blasts that killed 68 people, was arrested in Lucknow on August 26 and produced in a local court here on Tuesday.

The District Bar Association and the Jaipur Bar Association have also called up meetings to discuss the issue, sources said.

Jaipur blasts: The homegrown face of Muslim terror

The homegrown face of terror
27 Aug 2008, 0317 hrs IST,TNN

JAIPUR: These terrorists needed no external help. From planning to execution, it was all done locally.

Going by the findings of the Rajasthan probe agencies, the terror group, mostly the hardline cadres of the outlawed SIMI, mobilized funds locally and their modus operandi belies the conventional “external hand” theory of the home ministry and intelligence agencies.

This ties in with the terror emails sent by Indian Mujahideen, which claimed that the blasts were planned by Indian Muslims who had no connection with any terror outfit outside the country.

“Sajid Mansoori — the blasts mastermind — was a long-time SIMI member and had settled in Kota after giving police the slip in Surat. Soon after he reached Kota, he formed a core group, which was given the specific task of mobilizing funds by arousing religious sentiments during community gatherings,” said an SIT (special investigation team) official.

He formed the core group and made Raza alias Imran the treasurer. His job was to manage funds. Sajid and his accomplices visited several places in the state. He addressed gatherings in several cities in Rajasthan, including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Sawai Madhopur.

“After each meeting, contributions were sought to continue the battle against forces threatening Islam in India,” the SIT official said.

“The terror outfit had a strong local network, which played a vital role, right from planning to execution,” said K S Bains, the Rajasthan DGP.

Unlike in the previous blasts in which HuJI and Lashkar networks were suspected, in the case of the Jaipur blasts, the SIMI cadres were trained locally, mainly in Kota, to make bombs and plant them. “During meetings in Kota at the residence of Dr Ishhaq, bomb-making techniques were discussed and those picked were given further training,” the SIT official said.

The findings also point to another alarming trend. Those arrested in connection with Jaipur blasts were very much part of the society and were leading a normal family life. Among the arrested are also a father-son duo, who had rented their house to Sajid.
“Taufiq Qureshi and Nazaqat Hussain were the closest accomplices of Sajid and knew his real name. In fact, the entire Qureshi family knew Sajid’s real identity and Taufiq played a key role in selecting the youths who planted the bombs and triggered the blasts in Jaipur,” said the SIT official. Taufiq and his father, Ishhaq Qureshi, are among the seven suspects from Kota in custody of Rajasthan police.

Jaipur blasts ‘brain’ Shahbaz Husain, held in UP

‘Successor’ to Simi chief nabbed

Kajari Bhattacharya, 26 August 2008, thestatesman.net

LUCKNOW, Aug. 25: In a crucial break for anti-terror agencies in the country, Shahbaz Husain, the said “successor” to Students’ Islamic Movement of India (Simi) chief, Safdor Nagori, was arrested in Mouliviganj of Lucknow’s Aminabad area around 3.05 p.m. today. Hussain was arrested in connection with the Jaipur serial bomb blasts carried out on 13 May.

In a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh Police’ Anti Terrorism Squad and the Rajasthan Police, Shahbaz Hussain was nabbed nearly 10 days after another terror suspect and Simi operative, Abu Basher of Azamgarh, was arrested here. Hussain’s arrest comes after Basher’s interrogation provided leads into the Jaipur blasts, police sources said. Hussain is said to be a close aide of Basher. Basher is supposedly the mastermind of the 26 July Ahmedabad serial blasts. His involvement in the Jaipur blasts is also suspected.
Police here said major leads into the Jaipur blasts case are expected after the arrest and subsequent interrogation of Hussain, who is said to be the brain behind the Jaipur blasts. Hussain, who was an HR manager in a computer centre called Zyna Career Consultants in Adarsh Market near Maharani PG College in the state capital, was produced in the local Sessions Court here today, where he was put under 48 hours transit remand. Police sources here said Hussain aka Shannu is a close aide of Simi chief Safdar Nagori, who was produced in an Ahmedabad court today.

ATS sources here told The Statesman that Hussain has been living in Lucknow for the last two years, and is originally from Badoi district in UP.

Hussain’s in-laws, interestingly, live opposite the house of Humam Sidiqui, a lawyer who was fighting cases against Simi, and was arrested by the ATS in June this year, an ATS source said. “Hussain is well-educated after completing his BSc, he studied at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi. He was editor of Simi’s magazine, Islamic Movement,” the source said. Hussain will be escorted via special chartered flight to Jaipur by Rajasthan Police tonight.

Meanwhile, according to DIG of police (crime) Mr Saurabh Srivastava, who was camping in Ahmedabad after the recent arrest of 10 Simi activists, Sajid Mansuri has disclosed vital clues and links regarding the Jaipur serial blasts during interrogation, adds SNS from Jaipur. Hussain along with Mansuri is believed to have conducted a detailed recce of the bombing sites before giving the final go ahead to the bomb planters. Mansuri is also likely to be brought to Jaipur in the coming days.

Jaipur blasts ‘brain’ held in UP

Aug 26, 2008, Pioneer News Service | Lucknow

A joint team of Jaipur Police and UP’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested the owner of a computer institute and cyber cafe in Aminabad for his alleged links to the May 13 serial blasts in the Pink City.

Shahbaz Ahmed, a native of Bhadohi district in eastern UP, is a close aide of SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and used to edit a SIMI magazine propagating pan-Islamisation and stoking communal passions.

Keeping in mind that he is quite tech-savvy, the joint team is also probing minutely if Ahmed was involved in dashing off e-mails in the name of the lesser-known ‘Indian Mujahideen’ from a Ghaziabad cyber cafe soon after the Jaipur blasts.

His computer at the Aminabad institute was sealed and some hard discs and his cellphone were seized to extract clues. The sleuths were yet to make a search of his Naka Hindola house to collect his belongings for further possible leads.

Ahmed’s name cropped up during the quizzing of two masterminds of Ahmedabad serial blasts – Abdul Bashir of Saraimeer, Azamgarh, and Yunus aka Sajid Mansuri – who were arrested by Gujarat Police. During its interrogation, the duo spilled the beans of Ahmed having a close rapport with Nagori.

Subsequent investigations revealed that Ahmed had shifted base to Lucknow two years back and opened “Snazzy Computer Training Institute” opposite Mahila College at Aminabad and was also operating a cyber cafe there. A few months back, he changed the name of the institute to “Zaian Computer Centre”. The Jaipur Police later contacted the UP ATS and sought its help in netting Ahmed.

About the operations, ADG (Crime, Law & Order) Brij Lal said the ATS team came to know that Ahmed was residing at 155/17/12, Hata Suleman Kadar, in Naka. On Monday afternoon, the joint team raided his institute and arrested Ahmed. The Jaipur Police, which was armed with a production warrant from a Jaipur court for Ahmed’s involvement in the May 13 serial blasts, produced him before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lucknow, who gave a 48-hour transit remand for him to be taken to Jaipur.

Meanwhile, sources said that Ahmed was under Uttar Pradesh ATS surveillance for one year and it came to light that he used to visit Bhopal and Indore for attending Nagori’s camps. They also suspect him to be involved in sending e-mails in the name of the Indian Mujahideen.

SIMI members using aliases to carry out Islamic terrorist activities

Also read

I knew Sajid as Saleem, says Ali

What’s in a name?
Sreenivas Janyala
Posted online: Monday, August 25, 2008

The suspects caught in connection with Ahmedabad blasts don’t ring a bell for Jaipur and Hyderabad police. The reason: each one of them has several aliases

Hyderabad, August 24: It is a complex brainteaser of finding out who is who. There are several names without faces. There are no photographs, not even a sketch. And each person has several aliases: the terror network knows him by one name, Hyderabad Police may know him by another name while Jaipur police may be looking for him with another. But the real identity is a mystery. And, with indications that the network of SIMI activists involved in Ahmedabad blasts could also be involved in blasts in Hyderabad, Jaipur and elsewhere, some of the best investigative teams are trying crack this name code, and join the dots that might give them a complete picture.

Armed with a few old photographs and a list of names, teams of Hyderabad Police are interrogating those arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in connection with the July 26 blasts. The Hyderabad Police are looking for clues and information that might help them crack the twin blasts of August 25 last year at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat, and the Mecca Masjid blast last May.

With the trail of terror linking Azamgadh with Hyderabad, it is a painstaking work. The names of suspects that Hyderabad police have are not necessarily recognised by the accused arrested by Ahmedabad Crime Branch in connection. “On the other hand, the names that the accused are revealing may not ring a bell for the police. It is quite possible that the person may be the same but the police and the accused know him by different names. They have given themselves fake names for different purposes and are known by various aliases. So it is possible that police is looking for the same person that the accused are mentioning, but are finding it difficult to arrive at his real identity if photos are not available,” an officer said.

“We are exploring if those persons in custody of Ahmedabad police are involved in the Hyderabad blasts too, or they know of the persons who were involved. So far, the names or links are not falling into place,” says Hyderabad Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao.

“The dozen-odd persons arrested by the Ahmedabad Police also had given themselves aliases and throughout the operation they were known by that name only. Those who were involved in the operation did not know the real names of each other. Even during the training camps held in Kerala and Gujarat where persons from various states attended, they had fake names. In cases where we don’t have the suspects’ sketch or photograph, it is difficult to pin-point who is who,” says Joint Commissioner Ashish Bhatia. Bhatia says he has a strong hunch that the real identities of those behind Hyderabad and Jaipur blasts will emerge out of the interrogation of the persons arrested in connection with the Ahmedabad blasts.

Cops are sifting through old records, statements by persons arrested earlier or detained for questioning, and based on names and descriptions revealed by the accused in Ahmedabad, they are preparing profiles that might eventually help them in zeroing in on the real persons behind the blasts.

For instance, several names revealed by Hyderabad youth Raziuddin Nasir to Karnataka Police did not make sense to investigating agencies until the Ahmedabad Crime Branch interrogated some suspects after the blasts and realised that they were referring to the same people that Raziuddin Nasir mentioned, but with different names.

Based on the description given by one accused in Ahmedabad, the Hyderabad police questioned one student of Saidabad area on Thursday, but did not make much headway.

The Jaipur police have also picked up a couple of students whose identities were not clear to them before the Ahmedabad blasts arrests.

Officials said that though several persons suspected to be involved in Jaipur blasts could be identified based on the information provided by the accused in Ahmedabad, nothing has cropped up related to the Hyderabad blasts so far.