Pune blast part of Lashkar's 'Karachi Project'?

PUNE/NEW DELHI: Investigators suspect the blast in Pune on Saturday was set off by Indian Mujahideen as part of the `Karachi Project' - a plot by the Lashkar-e-Taiba involving fugitive Indian jihadis and serving and retired officers of the Pakistan army aimed at keeping up the offensive against India.

Sources in security agencies believe that the Southern Brigade of Indian Mujahideen which comprises absconding IM terrorists Abdus Subhan Qureshi and Mohsin Chaudhary - a Pune resident - could have been behind the explosion in the landmark German Bakery that left nine dead.
The assessment is based on similarities with other terror attacks carried out by IM which was floated by Lashkar to camouflage its hand in the continued terror campaign against India. The date of the attack is part of the pattern that the group has followed since the serial blasts it engineered in Jaipur in 2008 - that is to strike either on 13th on 26th. The last five major attacks, including 26/11, have happened on these two dates. The only significant deviation was the attack in Bangalore on July 25, 2008.

Second, they have always struck in the evening hours and have involved blasts, with the exception of 26/11 which was a frontal assault by Pakistani gunmen.

But there are other reasons as well why agencies are veering around to the IM angle. The intelligence with them suggests that IM leaders who are part of the `Karachi Project' have been under pressure for sometime to resume their activities. As part of the project, which was revealed by American Lashkar jihadi David Headley to his FBI interrogators, fugitive IM leaders Bhatkal brothers - Riaz and Iqbal - Mufti Sufiyan and Rasool Parti are being sheltered in Karachi by Lashkar. Headley, who recceed Chabad House close to German Bakery, had also told FBI interrogators about serving and retired officers of Pakistan army being part of the project.

Mohammad Amjad Khwaja, a leading IM jihadi from Hyderabad who was lodged in Pakistan by Lashkar as part of the Karachi Project and was recently arrested after reaching here, told his interrogators that he and his associates were shown videos of Pune's Osho Ashram and Mumbai's Blue Synagogue.

The IM leaders could have settled on Pune also because the outfit has always had a strong presence in the city. Some of the prominent ones - techies Mohammed Mansoor Asgar Peerbhoy who headed the `media wing' of the group, Mohammad Atiq Mohammad Iqbal and Anik Shafiq Sayyad, and Anwar Abdulganj Bagwan, an MBBS doctor from a local hospital - are in prison. But Mohsin Chaudhary, known to agencies, along with other foot soldiers from the city and other parts of Maharashtra as well as Karnataka, have so far dodged the police hunt. Union home ministry identified the fugitives on the run as Mohammad Ali, Amin, Irfan and Abu Rashid.


Jai Hind
Rahul Vallamber

Terror Threat to Vaishnodevi: CRPF

The cave shrine of Vaishnodevi, one of the most revered places of worship visited by about eight million pilgrims each year, faced a fresh terror threat and security has been beefed up.

Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) Special Director General N K Tripathi on Tuesday warned of the threat to the hill shrine, about 61 kms from here, saying it is on the radar of militants.

"There is a threat to the cave shrine of Vaishnodevi from militants. We have received inputs that militants want to do some mischief," he told reporters.

"Elaborate security measures are in place as per the threat perception. There is no laxity on part of the CRPF," he said, adding "the shrine is secured and safe, so pilgrims need not fear. They can undertake pilgrimage as CRPF is there for their security".

CRPF jawans have been put on high level of alert and are already keeping a hawk's vigil from the days in the run up to Republic Day on January 26 in Trikuta hills, the abode of the holy shrine, Tripathi said.

To a question, he said CRPF is main security agency providing security cover to the shrine an entire battalion is standing guard. A CRPF battalion usually comprises 1,000 personnel.

There is always a change in the strategy as per threat perception from time to time, Tripathi said.

"I had visited the shrine for security review after the threat inputs. There is frisking of pilgrims, round the clock patrolling, check points, nakas and electronic surveillance at the shrine and around it," he said.


Jai Hind
Rahul Vallamber