From Azamgarh, Islamic terrorism shifted base to Pune

“It was here that I learnt that most of the boys had gone to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to pursue studies or work. It was in these cities that they came in touch with terror modules and were indoctrinated.”

From Azamgarh, terror shifted base to Pune
By: Ketan Ranga Date: 2010-02-16,  Midday

Ketan Ranga remembers the time in 2008 when Azamgarh was under the terror scanner, but all evidence hinted that the real terror hub was elsewhere

The serial blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi and then the Batla House encounter in 2008 cleared up one thing.

Azamgarh had become the hub of terrorism in India.

Most of the terrorists whose names cropped in relation to these incidents were from Saraimeer, Sanjerpur and villages of Azamgarh.

On September 22, 2008, I went to Azamgarh to cover the arrest and deaths of some of the terrorists. In Saraimeer, I spoke to the families of the alleged terrorists. It was here that I learnt that most of the boys had gone to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to pursue studies or work. It was in these cities that they came in touch with terror modules and were indoctrinated.

I was still in Azamgarh when the Mumbai police broke up the media wing of Indian Mujahideen (IM), which used to send terror mails before blasts. All those who were nabbed belonged to Pune, including Mansur Azhgar Peerbhoy, the software engineer who was responsible for hacking into unsecured WiFi connections to send terror mails. However, a number of people, including Mohsin Chowdhary, an accused in the Ahmedabad blasts and now a suspect in the Pune blast, went absconding and continued their work.

Further investigations revealed that many students and professionals came in touch with terror modules when they went for Arabic classes in Pune. Arif Bashir, another accused in the Ahmedabad blast, was the IM man who would identify candidates for indoctrination into terror activities at these classes.

The area in Pune where most students from Azamgarh were staying also came under the police scanner.

The police finally realised that the IM had its headquarters in Pune. It was discovered that IM modules from all over India came to Pune to hold meetings and recruit. In fact, even after various IM modules were broken and a number of terrorists were caught, the recruitment in Pune continued unabated.

This was 2008. Even then it was clear that the work on sleeper cells in Pune was progressing at great speed. The Azamgarh module was broken up, but Pune was fast becoming the next hub of terror.

Saturday’s blast at the German Bakery just sealed that conclusion.

IIT Delhi, BJP, Cong hqs were on Indian Mujahideen’s hit list

IIT Delhi, BJP, Cong hqs were on IM’s hit list

Monday, February 8, 2010

New Delhi, Feb 8: In a startling revelation, police on Sunday, Feb 7 said that the headquarters of Congress and BJP, including IIT Delhi were on the hit list of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) aided terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) after the serial blasts in Sep 2008.

The plans of the Indian Mujahideen was revealed during the interrogation of the Shahzad, who was arrested by UP’s Anti-Terror Squad, in Azamgarh, sources said.

Delhi police said that Shahzad had confessed to shooting at inspector MC Sharma during Batla House encounter on Sep 19, 2008.

They added that after fleeing from Batla House, Shahzad was in touch with the four members of the terror outfit over internet.

Sources said that Shahzad had named a UP politician, a former MLA, stating that he had fled to his Shaheenbagh house after the encounter and had taken some money from the former MLA.

Both Shahzad and Junaid then went to Aligarh from Shaheenbagh and move on to Bulandshahr.

According to sources, he traveled towards Lucknow and from there he went to his village in Azamgarh before heading to Jaipur.

“From Jaipur, he went to Mumbai and later returned to his village where he was hiding,” the official said.

Sources added that the .32 revolver with which Shahzad had fired at Sharma could not be retrieved by the police, despite taking him to the canal where he had thrown it.

Following the revelation, the police conducted raid at several places which Shahzad had mentioned, sources said.

Besides, the former MLA, the names of a local leader, who is also said to be a councillor and another leader who assisted him in escaping from Delhi, have come up during the interrogation, according to sources.

Azamgarh terrorist question irks Islamofascist Ulema council

Azamgarh question in PSC exam cancelled, paper-setter blacklisted

Express News Service
Feb 28, 2009

Allahabad: The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) has cancelled a question in the Provincial Civil Service Preliminary exam held on February 22 and blacklisted the person who had set the paper.

Azamgarh-based Ulema Council had objected to the question, which read: “Which district of undivided UP is being branded as the breeding ground of terrorists?” The options were: (a) Azamgarh, (b) Aligarh, (c) Pithoragarh, (d) Pratapgarh. In a statement on Friday, UPPSC controller of exams Murlidhar Dubey said the commission regretted the inclusion of the question in the general studies paper. Examiners had been asked not to check the question and give marks to candidates out of a maximum of 149, not 150.

Ulema Council convener Amir Rashid Madni had alleged that the question was an attempt to malign Azamgarh district. He had sent letters to the President, Prime Minister, chief secretary of the state Government and others, demanding action against the commission authorities. Madni had threatened to launch an agitation if the commission did not take any action in the matter. He also said he would urge the youths of Azamgarh to boycott the UPPSC exams.

NOIDA suspected Islamic terrorists had links with Azamgarh (Aatank-garh)

Post-encounter, diary reveals Azamgarh ‘link’
Font Size Sahim Salim
Jan 27, 2009

New Delhi/ Noida: A scrutiny of the diary recovered from the car of the two suspected militants gunned down in Noida late Sunday night reveal they were in constant touch with a few persons in Azamgarh and the NCR, police sources said.

Police sources said at least two names and phone numbers have been traced to Azamgarh, in Uttar Pradesh, till now. Several other numbers in the diary belong to people from Delhi and surroundings areas, they said.

According to an official who is part of the investigating team, two names feature prominently in the diary: Mohammed Shahid and one Altaf, both Azamgarh residents. They said both UP police’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and Delhi Police’s Special Cell put the numbers on technical surveillance immediately after seizing the diary.

The surveillance so far reveals that Ali Ahmed and Abu Ismail, the alleged militants gunned in Noida’s Sector-97 after a brief gunbattle, were in constant touch with the Azamgarh duo. The police had yesterday claimed to have found two Pakistani passports from their car. Investigators suspect they initially stayed in Azamgarh for a while after crossing the border to India; later, they came to the NCR in a bid to sneak into the Capital.

They are believed to have been in the NCR for “at least a month”.

The Special Cell, meanwhile, conducted raids at various places across the Capital. Though the raids did not lead to the recovery of anything substantial, sources said they were meant primarily to flush out suspected Terror modules active in the Capital.

Senior officers said the raids were conducted following inputs from UP police. A Special Cell team today also visited the encounter spot in Noida and met UP police officials probing the case to share information, officials said.

Case registered in Noida
A senior officer of the ATS’s Noida unit said the diary contains several phone numbers from within the Meerut-Muradnagar-Ghaziabad-Noida zone of NCR. The officer said the two had been staying in the region for the past more than a month. “It was not possible for them to have stayed in the region without local support, or support from other members of their group, especially since they were heavily armed,” the ATS officer said.

The police said autopsy on the slain duo was conducted today at the postmortem house in Noida. Officials say they would contact the Pakistan High Commission in the Capital to hand over the bodies of the alleged militants, who the investigators claim are Pakistani citizens.

‘Aatank-garh’ Muslims want separate criminal trial system for Indian Muslims

Azamgarh man bought cycles, planted bomb in Jaipur

Post-encounter, diary reveals Azamgarh ‘link’

Muslims now want to be tried under separate law
Friday, January 30, 2009, dailypioneer.com
Staff Reporter | New Delhi

An over 1,000-strong Ulema Council congregation at Jantar Mantar on Thursday demanded a separate criminal trial system for the nation’s Muslims.

The gathering of Muslims from Azamgarh, led by 20 ulemas belonging to Islamic seminary Jameat-ur-Rashad in UP, claimed that a National Judicial Inquiry Committee be set up to look into cases in which the Muslim men were arrested by police on charges of terrorism but released by courts due to lack of evidence. “The Muslims freed of criminal/terror charges for lack of evidence should be compensated,” demanded the congregation. It also demanded scrapping of the recently passed anti-terror law — the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The crowd arrived at Delhi from Azamgarh in UP by a special train, called the ‘Ulema Express’. The demonstration, which began at 10 am, was also attended by students of the Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Each of the ulemas who spoke to the cheering crowds, insisted that a judicial inquiry be set up especially to look into the September 17 Batla House encounter by a sitting Supreme Court judge. In that encounter, two terrorists from Azamgarh involved in the Delhi blasts were gunned down by the State police.

“It is unacceptable to the Muslim community that innocent, educated young men should be picked up by law-enforcement agencies without any proof, to be released later by the courts for lack of evidence. The media highlights them as hardcore terrorists and their lives are tarnished forever. There should be a provision for compensation to such people,” Ulema Council convener Amir Rashidi Madani said.

Blaming political parties for not supporting them on the issue, Madani said that the Ulema Council would field two candidates from Azamgarh Sadar and Lalganj Lok Sabha seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election. “We are also trying for a third alternative. A few parties have approached us for support. But we want that any alternative should be headed by the Ulema Council,” said Madani, whose son Aamir Talha was picked up by the Maharashtra ATS on terror charges. He was later released by the court.

The event was organised by the Coordination Committee of Indian Muslims, an umbrella organisation of five bodies and the Ulema Council of Azamgarh.

Muslim leaders in Atankgarh: Sardar Patel was a terrorist, Israel behind ‘atrocities’ on Muslims

Another peek into the perverted mind of Muslim clerics.

Clerics meet in Azamgarh, put MPs on notice
Anuraag Singh, Hindustan Times
Varanasi, October 21, 2008

Muslim clerics on Monday held a conclave in Azamgarh district on the arrests and killing of community youth by police in connection with the recent serial blasts, sending the political parties into a frenzy.

The Ulema Council organised ‘Ajimoshaan Ehtazazi Ijlaas-e-Aam’, a gathering of clerics from across the country, who resolved to teach a lesson to those who are now calling Azamgarh ‘Atankgarh’ in the wake of the arrests and killing of several young men from the dictrict by the police, in connection with the recent blasts.

In a blow to parties who went to the homes of Muslim families in Sanjarpur village whose sons had either been killed or arrested, the clerics cautioned the three MPs connected to Azamgarh — Akbar Ahmad ‘Dumpy’ (BSP MP from Azamgarh), Iliyas Azmi (BSP MP from Shahbad) and Abu Azmi (Rajya Sabha member from the SP) — and said they would not be allowed entry if they failed to get their message of outrage across to Parliament.

The clerics also decided to lodge 250 cases against BJP MP from Azamgarh Yogi Adityanath, accusing him of turning the district into a cauldron of communal violence.

The main speaker at the conclave, Abdul Wahab, maintained Muslims have nothing to do with terrorism. “They are equal partners in the country and those who treat them as tennants should check themselves as early as possible.”

Muslim Political Council, Delhi, chief Dr Taslim Rehmani went to the extent of equating Nathuram Godse and Sardar Patel to terrorists. “The first terrorist of independent India was Nathuram Godse, while Sardar Patel was the second,” he reportedly said.

Mufti Abdul Kalam claimed that it was at the behest of Israel that atrocities were being perpetrated against Muslims in the country. The gathering — where a crowd of more than 15,000 had assembled — was attended by over 100 Muslim clerics.

Blaming ruling parties at the Centre and in UP for the arrests and killings, the speakers criticised Chief Minister Mayawati and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for indifference towards Muslims.

The clerics also decided to actively guide the community in getting its own public representatives, who don’t have affiliations to any party.

Shunned Muslims return to Azamgarh

Shunned, they return to Azamgarh
Deepak Gidwani
Saturday, September 27, 2008  03:59 IST

AZAMGARH: On normal days, the Azamgarh railway station is mostly deserted. But it has recently started witnessing hectic activity with arrivals suddenly going up. The reason? People who left their homes years ago to earn a decent livelihood elsewhere are returning.

All of a sudden, Azamgarh is an apologetic address to have. People in Mumbai, Delhi and several other big cities have begun to spurn those who come from this tainted place. The Delhi serial blasts, the Jamia Nagar encounter, and the arrest of five ultras from Mumbai on Wednesday — all from Azamgarh — has altered the destiny of many who left this backward reqion with dreams of making it big elsewhere.

“No one wants to have anything to do with us any more. Suddenly, we are strangers in places where we lived for decades,” says Shamim of Saraimir, who lost his job in Mumbai. “My only fault is I belong to Azamgarh,” he laments. “There are a lot of people like me who are coming back now… not voluntarily, but they are being forced to leave by employers and landlords,” he says.

Whether it is the Godaan Express from Kurla (Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Mumbai) or Kaifiyat Express from Old Delhi station, every day trains disgorge scores of people at Azamgarh . And bring depressing stories of hundreds who bear scorn and insults everyday only because Azamgarh’s reputation has been sullied by a spate of unfortunate events.

“I have worked in Mumbai for 30 years in the same company. My employer who has trusted me for so many years called me some days ago and asked me to pack my bags and leave. He said he might get into trouble due to my link with Azamgarh,” says Salim who was working for a firm in Santa Cruz.

Abdul of Sanjarpur, Faiz of Sidhari or Salim of Chand Patti, all of whom have been summarily dismissed from jobs in Mumbai, are asking the same questions: “What’s our fault? Why have we been thrown out?” But, for now, there are no answers.
g_deepak@dnaindia.net

Mumbai cops nab 5 suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists, all from Azamgarh

Mumbai cops nab 5 IM suspects
25 Sep, 2008, 0337 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Mumbai Police on Wednesday arrested five suspected terrorists belonging to the Indian Mujahideen, allegedly responsible for the recent blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and other cities in the last three years.

The five have been identified as Abdul Afzal Usmani, Mohammad Sadiq Shaikh, Mohammad Aarif Shaikh, Ahmed Zakir Shaikh and Shaikh Mohammad Ansari.

All five belong to Azamgarh in eastern Uttar Pradesh, which now appears to have become a breeding ground for jihadis, and were believed to have received training in Pakistan.

“Usmani, a resident of Azamgarh, had planted bombs at the Ahmedabad civil hospital and had stolen four vehicles from Navi Mumbai, which were used in the Ahmedabad blasts,” Mumbai joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said.
Sadiq was arrested from Cheetah Camp in north-east Trombay area. Aarif has been accused of making explosives used in the blasts.

“These five persons were involved in all the blasts across the country since 2005. They have links with LeT and Huji terror groups,” Mr Maria said.

The police have also recovered 10 kg ammonium nitrate, four electric circuits, sub-machine gun and revolvers from the five accused. “The founder member of the Indian Mujahideen, Roshan Khan is still at large and is suspected to be in Pakistan,” the police officer added.

Khan, who hails from Karnataka, had been active in Hyderabad, Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat, Mr Maria maintained. Ansari, a software engineer by profession, was responsible for assembling the bombs.

Usmani had planted bombs at the Ahmedabad civil hospital and had stolen four vehicles from Navi Mumbai which were used in the Ahmedabad blasts, Maria said.

Sadiq is believed to be one of the founder members of Indian Mujahideen, along with Atif, who was killed by the Delhi Police during the shoot-out at Jamia Nagar on Friday.

“Sadiq used to lure youth from his village, Sanjarpur, in Azamgarh and was involved in the planning of Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts,” Mr Maria said. The explosives and weapons seized from them, he pointed out, came from Karnataka.

Uttar Pradesh biggest Islamic terror hub in India after J&K

Uttar Pradesh biggest terror hub after J&K
24 Sep 2008, 0410 hrs IST, Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui ,TNN

LUCKNOW: Every time a deadly bomb goes off in some part of India and the police begin to investigate, the road to suspects invariably leads to Uttar Pradesh, fast emerging as the biggest terror hub in the country after Jammu & Kashmir. Of the 54 major terror strikes in the country since 2000, at least 45 had a direct link with UP, which itself was rattled by 14 blasts.

As parts of the most populous state in India turn into a terror factory, it’s not surprising that the two Indian Mujahideen cadre shot dead in Delhi last week belonged to Azamgarh, one of the most backward districts in eastern UP. And so are the three men arrested by Delhi Police on Sunday. In fact, almost all the suspects for the recent attacks in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi came from Azamgarh, where a manhunt is on to nab the terror suspects.

With a large number of young, uneducated and unemployed Muslim youth walking the streets aimlessly, the state has become a fertile ground for breeding terror. Terrorism, according to intelligence sources, began to grow roots in the state in 1985 when Azam Ghauri, a native of Andhra Pradesh, and Abdul Karim Tunda of UP set up a unit to provide logistics support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Ghauri and Tunda, alongwith a Mumbai doctor, Jalees Ansari, had set off a series of explosions in the country on December 6, 1993 — the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition. This was the first known LeT strike in the country outside J&K. Since then almost all major terror attacks have had some UP connection.

Terror outfits from UP have made headlines in the neighbouring countries as well. On October 1, 2005, HuJI ‘commander’ Mufti Abdul Hannan was arrested in Dhaka. During interrogation, Hannan confessed to have been trained in Peshawar (Pakistan) and fought in Afghanistan. But before going to Pakistan, Hannan had spent six years at a seminary in Shahjahanpur district of UP.

Although most of the terrorists from UP have been directly involved in the bomb attacks, some of them have been arrested for their role in other subversive activities like forming sleeper cells and dormant terror modules. In 2007, four persons, including two Hizbul Mujahideen men, were convicted by a Delhi court for possessing explosives and conspiring to wage war against the country. Two of the convicts, who turned out to be active SIMI members, were from Lucknow.

In June 2008, Delhi Police arrested a Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist, Habib-ur-Rehman, for allegedly providing logistics support to two Pakistanis caught with a large cache of ammunition and RDX in Delhi in September 2001. Rehman belongs to Moradabad district of UP.

According to intelligence reports, around 79 incidents of subversive activities were reported from 34 districts, including Lucknow, in UP between 2001 and 2008. Azamgarh, which is now emerging as the latest hotspot on the country’s terror map, tops the list of these dubious districts.

Azamgarh, major recruitment centre for Indian Muslim terrorists

Azamgarh, terror nursery in eastern UP
Press Trust of India
Saturday, September 20, 2008, (Azamgarh)

Azamgarh, the small town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, which is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons and has earned notoriety as a nursery of terror, is said to be home to a dozen activists of the banned SIMI.

Once known for Hindu-Muslim synergy and high intellect, Azamgarh has come to be known as terror’s breeding ground, because it has provided a very fertile land for the SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) and other such outfits to flourish.

Top intelligence and police officials now say that the arrest of Abu Bashar, a top SIMI activist, from the Saraimir area in Azamgarh, was not merely a coincidence but may be the first of many such arrests.

“There are many SIMI operatives in eastern UP but about two dozen of them are quite active. They are very active at certain times but mostly they are dormant. About a dozen of them belong to Azamgarh,” the officials said.

“We cannot pick them up without direct evidence of their involvement in the anti national activities,” they added.

They feel it is not surprising that the two terrorists, Atif and Sajid, who were killed and Mohammad Saif, who was apprehended in the Delhi encounter on Friday, belonged to Azamgarh district, said a top police official of Uttar  Pradesh, who did not want to be identified.

There are a number of sleeper cells of SIMI, which can be activated at any time and they are the real problem, they said. end
Dawood to Atif, ill-famed sons of Azamgarh
22 Sep, 2008, 0259 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Even before they could recover from the shock delivered by the arrest of a cleric from one of the villages for his alleged role in the Ahmedabad and Jaipur blasts, the people of Azamgarh received another rude reminder about their district’s fast-growing reputation as an active breeding ground for jihadi terrorism by the stunning revelation that the September 13 serial blasts in the Capital too had an Azamgarh connection.

Interrogation of the Indian Mujahideen member arrested in the wake of the bloody encounter that took place at Jamia Nagar in south Delhi on Friday took the Delhi Police special branch to Azamgarh.

It led them to conclude that a module comprising 13 terrorists, all of them hailing from the eastern UP district, was responsible for carrying out the September 13 serial blasts in the Capital, which left over 25 people dead and some 100 injured.

The disclosure has reinforced the perception that Azamgarh had emerged as one of major recruitment centres for the jihadi outfits.

Atif, the alleged mastermind of the September 13 serial blasts, and Sajid, who were killed on the spot in the Jamia Nagar shootout, and Mufti Abu Basher, join a fast-expanding list of notorious sons of the soil from Azamgarh, a list that includes several high-profile names such as Dawood Ibrahim, Haji Mastan, Chhota Shakeel and Abu Salem.

At one point of time, the best sharpshooters in the Mumbai underworld too hailed from this district, and Shahid Badra, the first president of the banned Simi, too had roots in Azamgarh.

Intelligence agencies at the central and state levels now have Azamgarh firmly on their radar, even as security experts and sociologists try to unravel the mystery behind the district’s brush with infamy.

Police officials who have served in the district in the past contend that Azamgarh’s tryst with radicalism began in the late sixties of the previous century, when a large number of people made a beeline to west Asia in search of jobs.

“As their numbers swelled, the district soon began to thrive on money-order economy. Pockets of opulence started sprouting, particularly in and around Sarai Meer, and they rubbed shoulders with boroughs of abject poverty,’’ a SSP-level police officer from UP told ET.

The increase in economic prosperity of a section of the populace also led to the creation of strong hawala network. Azamgarh at one point time had become a major centre for illegal money transactions.

The increase in financial clout of the people of this areas was, however, not accompanied by any discernible improvement in the educational status. “There was good money, but no good education. Madrasas, which had mushroomed in the region in the meanwhile, occupied this space.

Jihadi outfits out on a recruitment drive found it easy to work on children receiving education in these institutions by indoctrinating them with radical ideology,’’ the officer said.

The youth, according to another officer who’s done a stint in Azamgarh, were also turned on by the `success stories’ of Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Chhota Shakeel. “These elements became the role-models, reference-points for the youth brigade.

Now everyone wanted to take the same route to acquire fame and wealth, and also glamour, in the shortest possible time. Of course, the absence of any industry and other employment opportunities in the region hastened the process,’’ said the officer.

Officers working in the state intelligence claim that organisations such as Simi and Huji had been active in the area for quite some, scouting around for young impressionable minds.

“We had Abu Basher under surveillance for the last six months. We had inputs that, being a Maulvi, he was actively involved in the process of screening candidates for terror activities,’’ an officer pointed out.