Excerpt from Indian Express , reported by Express news service on Jul 27 2011: Read Full Article

A sessions court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a Govandi resident to five years rigorous’ imprisonment in a case of spying on vital installations across the city. Mohammad Shafi Qamar Afghani (35) was convicted under the Official Secrets Act after the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) produced documents and pictures shot of vital installations such as the Army base and naval warships.

Afghani, a zari worker from Govandi who inconspicuously carried out his operation out of Mumbai allegedly for years, was arrested from his house in October 2007. “Forty-two pictures of anchored naval warships, naval field maintenance units and diaries containing phone numbers and addresses were procured from him. Although he denied links with anti-national elements during the trial, in narco- tests he had named two ISI agents—Tayyab and Jahid— for whom he carried out the work in the city,” said Special Public Prosecutor Kalpana Chavan.

Excerpt from Daily Bhaskar, reported on 13/07/2011

Interrogation of the two Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives arrested in Mankhurd on July 6 has revealed that one of them was indoctrinated at Arthur Road jail. The two were later assigned the task of arranging for the vehicles used to plant bombs in Ahmedabad and Surat in 2008.

The arrested persons have been identified as Mohammad Mobin Abdul Shakoor Khan alias Irfan, 32, and Ayub Raja Amin Shaikh, 28. The two are cousins and natives of Khazrana in Indore.

Additional director general of police, ATS, Rakesh Maria said that Irfan was lodged in Arthur Road jail in 2005 in a vehicle theft case. It was there that he got in touch with Afzal Usmani Mutalik, who was in jail in connection with a MCOCA case.

When IM co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal asked Mutalik for vehicles to plant bombs, he recruited Irfan and his cousin Shaikh. “Investigation revealed that Mutalik indoctrinated the two into IM by the end of 2006. After IM members were caught following the blasts, the two fled the city and their native place in Indore. While Irfan worked in Bareilly, Rampur and Ghaziabad, Shaikh worked in Devas in Madhya Pradesh,” said deputy commissioner of police Pradeep Sawant.

“We will interrogate them to get more details about the absconding members of the group and the functioning of the IM,” Maria said. He did not say whether the duo had given any information to clarify if Bhatkal was shot dead in Pakistan a few months ago.

On July 26, 2008, a series of blasts had rocked Ahmedabad, while bombs were found in cars in Surat the next day. Investigations had revealed that some of the vehicles used in the explosions were stolen from Navi Mumbai. Maria said that Mutalik had contacted Irfan and Shaikh on July 5, asking them to arrange for the cars.

Excerpt from rxpressindia.com by Sukanya Shetty on Jan 19, 2010: Read Full Article

Mohammed Qamar Shafi Afghani, arrested over two years ago on charges of spying for Pakistan, apparently went on a hunger-strike at Arthur Road Jail demanding a speedy trial, fell ill, and is now in JJ Hospital for psychiatric treatment.Afghani, 29, a zari worker, allegedly fasted for a month. “He is suffering from migraine and serious psychosomatic complications. He has moved several applications to the court seeking speedy trial and appropriate treatment,” said lawyer Shahid Azmi.

Afghani was arrested from Govandi railway station on October 10, 2007 and booked under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly surveying sensitive Navy installations. According to the 135-page chargehseet filed by the ATS, Afghani had also revealed an ISI plan to take the sea route and launch an attack.

As reported in mathrubhumi.org on 20th Dec 2009.
Piecing together the investigations into terror suspects David Headley’s footsteps, investigators have found that he had conducted a proper reconnaissance of not only Bhaba Atomic Research Centre but also of some Bollywood studios in northeastern suburb of the city.

The 49-year-old Headley, who has been under arrest in the US since October three, had travelled to Chembur and Trombay many a times and filmed the exits and entries of the BARC besides the entry of employees, official sources said here today.

The terror suspect, who has been charged by the FBI with being part of the conspiracy in 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had also taken video shots of the nuclear installation by hiring a boat from Gateway of India. The rear side of the BARC, located on a hill top, can be seen from the Arabian Sea.

The investigators also comprising officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the role of Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Rana in India, suspect that Headley, during his boat ride, may have surveyed the mangroves located near the coastline.

The security around the nuclear installation has been tightened and efforts were on to ensure proper

cover in the mangroves located below the BARC, the sources said.

Security of NTPC’s cold storage plant in the area was also being reviewed as the security agencies were apprehensive that while filming BARC, Headley may have conducted recce of it as well. The terror suspect was trained by Lashker in clandestine filming of vital installations. The American-born terror suspect, who was allegedly close to top brass of Lashker-e-Taiba including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Hafeez Saeed, is also alleged to have carried of surveillance of some Bollywood studios.

LeT has always spoken against the film culture and their first target in Jammu and Kashmir were the cinemas.

The investigators were also trying to ascertain whether he had met any other Bollywood actor other than Rahul Bhat, son of noted filmmaker Mahesh Bhat. Rahul has been questioned by the NIA officials on two occasions earlier. However, his father — Mahesh — says that his son has done his duty in approaching the security agencies and helped them in tracing the trail of Headley.

As reported in www.topnews.in by Sarthak Gupta on  11/14/2009

The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Mumbai police is probing the possibility that 28-year-old Kailash Singh, who was arrested with a bag of weapons, was to deliver them to an underworld gang. Singh was arrested on Thursday with 10 pistols, one carbine and 50 bullets.

The ATS officers suspect Singh could be delivering the weapons to the upcoming Kumar Pillai gang involved in cases of extortion and threatening builders.

On Monday, an accused identified as Lafda Shetty had barged into a the office of Lakshmi Corporation in Vikhroli and tried to fire. Shetty was, however, unable to as the weapon got jammed.

The fact that three days later Singh was arrested from Chembur, which is near Vikhroli, the ATS is probing whether Singh was ordered to deliver weapons to members of the Kumar Pillai gang.

According to ATS officers, Singh could just be a deliveryman or could be attached to an inter-state gang. Singh had visited Mumbai two months ago with a consignment and managed to get away but the ATS had kept an eye on his movements and arrested him as soon as he landed in the city with the delivery.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ATS) Pradeep Sawant said that they are probing various angles. “We are interrogating Singh to find out who was Singh delivering the weapons to,” said Sawant.

ATS officers said the seized weapons could be used by the underworld as the carbines are multi-operational and convenient to gangsters as they fire multiple bullets at one go and do not give time for the opponent to react.

As reported by PTI on 12 Nov, 2009 , 17:14 HRS IST

Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested a man from at Amar Mahal Junction, Chembur on the charge of possessing ten pistols, one carbine and 68 cartridges.

ATS Chief K P Raghuvanshi said that on a tip-off , they arrested Kailash Singh (28) and seized arms and ammunition from his possession. Preliminary investigations revealed that he had brought the weapons to the city from North India, Raghuvanshi said adding that they were yet to find out what was his role in carrying the weapons. ATS chief clarified that Singh did not belong to any terror outfit. The accused was remanded to ATS custody till November 18.

Eleven Pakistanis sneaked into India in March, 2006 to plan and execute the train blasts, A N Roy, then city police commissioner, had said in September 2006. While nine fled the country, the tenth, Salim, was killed in the blast at Mahim as he probably could not get off the train in time, Roy said. The eleventh, Mohammed Ali alias Abu Osama, was killed in an encounter with the ATS at Antop Hill.

The plot’s ambit extended up to Bangladesh and Nepal and was executed by Pak-based Lashkar-e-Taiba with help of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The operation had the stamp of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), he had said.

ATS investigations, with inputs from the Intelligence Bureau, found the Pakistanis came to Mumbai in three groups through Nepal, Bangladesh and the Gujarat.

In Mumbai, the Pakistanis stayed in rented apartments in Borivli (E), Malad, Bandra (W) and Mumbra, and 15 to 20 kg of RDX was brought by Ehsanullah, a Pakistani national. The bombs were assembled at Mohammed Ali’s house in Shivajinagar slum in Govandi and stored in a room rented by Faisal Shaikh on Perry Cross Road in Bandra (W).

On July 11, seven teams, each with one Pakistani, took taxis to Churchgate station, placed the bombs in trains and got down.

The crime branch had claimed that the bombs for the blasts were manufactured in a Sewree flat and the RDX was procured by a wanted accused, Riyaz Bhatkal. But the ATS is sticking to its old theory that the bombs were assembled at a 100 sq ft flat in Govandi and not at Sewree. The ATS said that the RDX was procured by a Pakistani Ehsanullah, who had illegally entered India along with 10 other Pakistani accomplices.

With above theory or conclusion that bombs used in the July 11, 2006 train blasts were made in Govandi, as one of the evidence in addition to other reports, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is likely to discharge Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Sadiq Shaikh , indicating that no evidence was found to link the outfit with the terror attack.

ALSO, During his polygraph test, Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Sadiq Shaikh told the forensic experts that he had lied about the outfit’s involvement in the train blasts. This brought a new twist to the tale as Sadiq, till then, had told the Mumbai crime branch, the Ahmedabad police and the Delhi police that he and his accomplices engineered the explosions. As per the results of this tests submitted to ATS, Sadiq Shaikh was not involved in the train blasts and that he had lied during the interrogations conducted by other agencies.

Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) top operative Sadiq Sheikh’s confession on his alleged role in the July 11, 2006 serial Mumbai train blasts has come as a huge embarrassment to the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad. Two years ago, the ATS had chargesheeted 13 people but Sadiq and other members of IM module were not named as conspirators.

On Friday, after a news channel aired the videotapes of Sadiq’s confession in which he says that he and his associates had purchased pressure cookers, placed bombs in them and planted them in trains, the ATS was at pains to rubbish it saying Sadiq was trying to mislead investigators.

‘‘Our teams are questioning him and we cannot reveal information at this juncture,’’ said acting ATS chief, additional director-general of police K P Raghuvanshi. It was Raghuvanshi who had headed the 7/11 investigation as ATS chief. He had then claimed that the blasts were carried out by Simi activists and Pakistanis.

Sadiq first admitted his role in 7/11 when he was in custody of the Mumbai crime branch. The crime branch, while investigating the cars stolen from Navi Mumbai which were used in the 2008 blasts in Ahmedabad and planting of bombs in Surat, arrested Sadiq and 20 others last September. DGP A N Roy had then said that Sadiq’s claims were part of an al-Qaida ploy to mislead investigators. TOI had reported these developments extensively in its edition of October 15, 2008.

In the confession which has come to light now, Sadiq, an electronic engineer, said he along with his accomplices engineered the train bombings (which killed 188) on the instructions of his mentors, Riyaz Bhatkal and Amir Raza, both of whom are wanted.

In his statement before the police, Sadiq said that they had manufactured the bombs at a flat in Sewri in central Mumbai which was taken on rent by Abu Rashid, a wanted accused. However, the ATS said the bombs were manufactured in a 100-sq ft room in Govandi and that some Pakistanis were also present there.

‘‘All five of us arranged local first class train passes beforehand. We also had the local train time table with us so that we could choose a train as per our convenience. We purchased bags and pressure cookers in Bombay,’’ Sadiq told the police, adding, ‘‘On the day of the blast — July 11, 2006 — all five of us assembled the bombs and filled seven cookers with explosives. We kept the bombs ready. We had planned the bombs to go off at 6:30 pm. So we had activated the timer at 2 pm. We planned to move one by one with the bags containing the bombs.’’

The crime branch in its chargesheet against the IM module had mentioned that Sadiq was allegedly involved in several blast cases across the country since 2005. Soon after, the ATS which had earlier rubbished the IM claims of carrying out the train attacks, sought custody of Sadiq.