7/11-like terror can
hit Mumbai again
1 Dec, 2006 .MUMBAI: The 7/11 bombing of local trains was by no means the last attack on Mumbai, and the city is likely to encounter more terror assaults in future. This warning is the highlight of the Anti-Terrorist Squad’s (ATS) 10,443-page chargesheet filed before the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Thursday. More shocking than this, however, is the revelation by ATS sources that it had warned the railway authorities about being targeted by terrorists much before the July 11 attacks. A letter by ATS chief Krish Pal Raghuvanshi on March 1, 2006, had informed railway commissioner Suresh Khopde as well as the general manager and divisional railway manager of Western Railway about a possible terror attack. Raghuvanshi had specifically mentioned that a terrorist could board a local train with an improvised explosive device and get down after leaving it in a compartment. However, the railway authorities did not take the letter seriously. The chargesheet, which was prepared in 142 days, states that one of the 13 arrested accused, Asif Bashir Khan alias Junaid, is the chief operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Mumbai (until now, the ATS had believed Faisal Shaikh to be the chief). "Junaid, president of the banned SIMI in the state, was wanted in two major cases. He acted as a 'coordinator' among all the accused in the 7/11 case," said Raghuvanshi. Fifteen accused, including nine Pakistanis, are still at large. The chargesheet also states that Naved Khan, who allegedly planted a bomb in a Khar train, had told the police that he was in a snooker club in Mira Road then. "He had enrolled himself in the snooker club under a false name. However, we have evidence that he did not go to the club on July 11," Raghuvanshi told TOI . The chargesheet mentions more than seven money transactions by the accused from Pakistan to a Gulf country and then India. Bihar resident Kamal Ahmed, the first to be arrested in the case on July 19, underwent terror training in Pakistan. "We have submitted our evidence
to the court about his visits to Pakistan. He visited Pakistan at least
seven times and brought more than a dozen militants to India via the Nepal
border," ATS sources said.
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