Those who masterminded the Mumbai train terror

By IANS

Mumbai : On Wednesday it will be a year since the 7/11 blasts along Mumbai's suburban trains rattled the megalopolis. According to the charge-sheet filed by Mumbai Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), 28 people helped stage the multiple terror attacks.


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Then Mumbai police commissioner A.N. Roy has said that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) carried out the attacks – which killed 186 people and injured many more – with the help of a group of Pakistanis and Indians, using lethal RDX explosives packed in pressure cookers.

ATS filed the 359-page charge-sheet with 10,000 pages of evidence attached to it against 28 accused, including 15 absconding accused, on Nov 30, 2006. Here is a brief on them:

Arrested accused (13): Kamal Ansari, Tanvir Ansari, Faisal Sheikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Mohammed Shafi, Sheikh Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Ansari, Abdul Wahid Sheikh, Muzammil Sheikh, Soheil Sheikh, Zamir Sheikh, Naved Khan, Asif Khan Bashir Khan alias Junaid.

Three others, Mumtaz Choudury, Khalid Sheikh and Akmal hasmi, were arrested but later discharged.

Accused absconding: 15, including Azam Cheema, Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) commander-in-chief.

Bomb planters among the arrested, as claimed by the police:

* Faisal Sheikh, 'LeT Mumbai chief':

– Worked with Azam Cheema

– Received arms training in Pakistan

– ATS says he is a key conspirator along with Junaid

– Sent his brother Muzammil with Tanvir Ansari, a unani medicine practitioner, Soheil Sheikh and Zamir Sheikh to Pakistan via Tehran

– Arranged to receive funds through hawala channels for the execution of the bombings through absconding accused Rizwan Daware and his brother Rahil

– Meetings to plan the conspiracy took place at his rented flat in Bandra, Mumbai

– Planted the bomb on a train that exploded at Jogeshwari station on the western line of Mumbai's suburban railway service

* Asif Khan Basir alias Junaid:

– Housed and harboured Pakistani terrorists at his Mira Road, Mumbai residence

– Helped in assembling bombs at the residence of Mohammed Ali, a Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activist, at Govandi in the eastern suburbs

– Planted the bomb which exploded at Borivali station, also on the western line of Mumbai's suburban railway service

* Kamal Ansari, first to be arrested from Madhubani in Bihar on July 20, 2006:

– Received arms training in Pakistan

– Helped Pakistani terrorists to cross over to India through the India-Nepal border along Bihar

– Planted the bomb that went off at Bandra station on the western line of Mumbai's suburban railway service

* Ehtesham Siddiqui, one of the key conspirators:

– Harboured Pakistani terrorists in a house in Mumbra, a small town now part of suburban Mumbai

– Surveyed local trains to plan the blasts

– Planted the bomb which went off at Mira Road station on the western line of Mumbai's suburban railway service

The trial is slated to start later this month.

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