Terror duo sings: Mumbai strike averted in nick of time

[Desi Cartman]

MUMBAI: A terror strike appears to have been averted in Mumbai in the nick of time. The two terror suspects arrested over the weekend planned to set fire to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) office at Bandra (East) on Monday (March 15), according to state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officers. Abdul Latif Rashid alias Guddu (29), a resident of Haji Chawl, Behrampada, Bandra (East), and Riyaz Ali Imtiaz alias Rehan (23), a resident of Koyla Bhavan Chawl, Ratan Nagar, Dahisar, planned to enter the ONGC premises, known as Vasudhara Bhavan, with the help of an ONGC Class-IV employee, said the ATS officers. When asked how they intended to set fire to the building, the ATS officers said they were still interrogating the two brothers-in-law. Sources said they were held while going to a petrol pump to arrange for fuel. Police are issuing a warning to all pumps not to sell loose fuel to any customers, especially those who don’t have vehicles, and to inform the authorities of anyone trying to buy such fuel. According to the remand application, attacks were planned on ONGC, Thakkar Mall in Borivli, where Riyaz worked, and Mangaldas Market in Kalbadevi, where Latif worked. Gujarati Chawl, near the Borivli mall, was also targeted. The ATS officers said fire was to be set at these places before the suspects went to Pakistan. Latif had allegedly asked six men, aside from himself and Riyaz, to apply for passports and go to Pakistan free of cost for terror training. of those youth refused to go, saying the plot was anti-national. ‘‘One of those two youths first told a police informant about the plot and we put all the eight under surveillance,’’ said the officer. Both youth who refused to go to Pakistan have been questioned by police. Of the other four, two have been questioned and two cannot be found. While some sources said the four who applied for passports may be arrested soon, other sources said the ATS is looking for as many as 10 associates of the arrested duo who was part of the ‘‘Karachi operation’’. Police said the arrested duo had befriended an ONGC employee over the period of a month. ‘‘The duo wanted to set the ONGC headquarters, Vasudhara Bhavan in Bandra, on fire, and not oil tanks,’’ said a senior ATS officer. No maps, firearms or petrol was recovered. Senior officers were tight-lipped about the identity of the ONGC employee, but plan to make him a witness for the prosecution. ‘‘The two suspects befriended him and wanted to get some support from him. We are questioning him, but it’s too difficult to say at this stage whether he was part of the conspiracy or unaware of the plot,’’ an ATS officer said. Latif was in touch with a certain ‘Chacha’ in Karachi. ‘‘Latif’s maternal uncle is an absconding accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. He had asked Latif to go to Pakistan and sent Rs 10,000 to help him get a passport through tatkal,’’ said an ATS official. It is not known if ‘Chacha’ and Latif’s uncle are the same person. Latif’s and Riyaz’s passports have been seized. ‘‘More than 16 calls were made and received by the duo to a Pakistani number. Their phones will be sent for analyses,’’ said the ATS source.

[EnterTheVoid]

Expected nothing else from that despicable nation. Rot and rot alone, hopefully to a civil war.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Expected nothing else from that despicable nation. Rot and rot alone' date=' hopefully to a civil war.[/quote'] What i dont understand is that why India just doesn't ban people from going to Pakistan. I know that they will find alternatives but that would make a bit harder for them with little man power from India.

[EnterTheVoid]

What i dont understand is that why India just doesn't ban people from going to Pakistan. I know that they will find alternatives but that would make a bit harder for them with little man power from India.

What I don't understand is why India won't cut off all ties with Pakistan, diplomatic ties, sporting ties, everything.

[THX_1138]

they sound like a bunch of amateurs... do you know how tedious it is to burn a building with mere gasoline? gasoline burns quick and burns with a flash! if you wish to create a sustaining fire, you need some base, that will act as both a retardant and as fuel... something like rubber. thats what napalm is: one part vulcanized rubber with two parts gasoline... burns slow and burns long! nevertheless, i hope these frackers enjoy some sweet justice in the jails. sentence them to long sessions of star fruit assault.

[Roshanrocks]

i pity the poor informant... the police are idiots by telling the reporters that one of the people who were initially asked to be involved tipped them... am sure the militant leaders must have noted it

[punjabi_khota]

Expected nothing else from that despicable nation. Rot and rot alone' date=' hopefully to a civil war.[/quote'] Our home grown bastards have been caught here :((. It is not just Pakistan's fault.

[dev.goswami]

Also, our great Mumbai ATS went to the media too early...the 'chacha' has now disappeared from the intelligence agencies' radars:

A senior ISI official plotting terror attacks against India went off the radar hours after Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) went public with the Intelligence Bureau’s (IB) finding that an ‘Uncle’ based in Karachi had drawn up an elaborate plan to use Lashkar footsoldiers to target the ONGC and other targets in Mumbai. Central authorities were upset with the indiscretion of ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi in declaring to the world that the arrest of two alleged terrorists in Mumbai on Saturday night was facilitated by IB managing to intercept their conversations with ‘Uncle’. “Uncle is no more (sic).... The ATS sang a lot about its own operation and this not only alerted ‘Uncle’, who had been talking to the terror duo, but also sent other terror modules in the state into deep hiding,’’ said a senior official in Delhi. The disclosure by the ATS about the terror duo’s constant calls to someone called ‘Uncle’ has caused a lot of heartburn among central agencies in Delhi, forcing the Union home ministry to pull up the elite squad and ask it “to keep quiet and concentrate better on its job’’. The duo was arrested by the ATS on Saturday night near Matunga railway station and the police claimed that both Latif and Riyaz were planning terror strikes on ONGC, Thakkar Mall and Mangaldas Market. “The preliminary probe suggested that the duo was getting instructions from someone called ‘Uncle’ in Pakistan to execute their activities,’’ ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi had reportedly told the media on Sunday while announcing the arrests. Officials in Delhi lamented that the revelation about Uncle’s role was a “real hit on the head for us’’. Asked whether the two arrested militants in Mumbai were on a reconnaissance mission or were planning to hit a target, the official, while terming them as “big catch’’, said the two men were working with a specific plan to hit a target. He said their arrest had become necessary as they were about to hit their targets “very’’ shortly. “Since the agencies here had been keeping track of their movements, plans and phone calls from Karachi, the Centre had alerted ONGC as well as the Maharashtra government accordingly. A more specific alert had been sent to the state and the oil company 10 days before the arrest,’’ said the official.

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2010/03/16&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00203&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T