NEW DELHI: India finally got Fasih Mohammad, a key fund-raiser for the Indian Mujahideen (IM), in its custody.
The engineer, who hails from Bihar's Darbhanga district and is believed to be one of the founding members of IM, was arrested by Delhi Police at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here on Monday morning, after he was deported by Saudi Arabia.
Fasih is believed to be connected to the Chinnaswamy Stadium (April, 2010) and Delhi's Jama Masjid (September 19, 2010) terror attacks.
Fasih is the third terrorist to be deported from Saudi Arabia in the past five months, while five others, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative Fayyaz Kagzi, are still holed up in the country. The key 26\11 Mumbai terror attack handler Abu Jundal was deported in June, whereas another Lashkar terrorist A Rayees of Kerala was deported earlier this month.
India has already written to Saudi Arabia, seeking help in tracing the five suspects, including Kagzi, who have been running sleeper cells from there to carry out terror attacks in India.
The arrest brought to an end a long spell of uncertainty within the Indian establishment about whether New Delhi would be able to get access to Fasih. The deportation is seen as a breakthrough for Indian investigators who have been trying to lay their hands on the senior IM `terrorist'. Agency sources said they believe this arrest would help them gather more information on this shadowy organization, which Indian agencies believe was set up by LeT and ISI to promote homegrown terrorism within India. This makes Fasih a prize catch, said sources. In his initial conversations with investigators, Fasih is believed to have revealed that five other IM members, including Kagzi, were still in Saudi Arabia.
Hours after getting Fasih deported, Indian on Monday termed him a "very important catch", saying Saudi Arabia fully cooperated in his deportation to India. In his first official reaction on Fasih's arrest, home secretary R K Singh said, "He was a very important catch. He was deported after he had served a sentence there( for some crime committed there). Saudi Arabia fully cooperated with us." He said India had submitted "material evidence" against Fasih to Saudi authorities to press its demand for deportation for his involvement in various terrorist acts in the country. "Our officers were in touch with Saudi Arabia. That is how it happened," he said. The home secretary's statement raised frowns in MEA, which has been trying to get the home ministry to keep operational details out of public view.
Fasih has been in Saudi custody since May. India wanted him for his involvement in Chinnaswamy Stadium blast in Bangalore and IM's Meer Vihar (Delhi) factory, which was unearthed by Delhi's Special Cell last November, with the arrest of 13 IM terrorists. Fasih's name as an important leader of the organization and close association with Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal in Pakistan and Yasin Bhatkal in India, had cropped up first during questioning of other IM members — Gauhar Aziz Khomani and Mohammad Tarique Anjum Hasan (both natives of Darbhanga). His role is also being examined in the Jama Masjid attack case. A Red Corner Notice (RCN) was also issued against him in May.
Sources say "since the formation of Indian Mujahideen in 2003, he used to visit several places and collect funds for Jehadi activities. He was in direct touch with Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal". During the interrogation of 13 IM terrorists, Delhi Police investigators learned that the IM boss, Ahmad Zarrar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal, used to make regular calls to Saudi Arabia. They suspect those calls were made to Fasih.
The Fasih deportation differs from that of Jundal, primarily because there was little doubt about the former's nationality. While Jundal was picked up in Saudi Arabia with Pakistani documents, Fasih had Indian identification on him. Ironically, the case against Fasih was helped by his wife, Nikhat Parveen, who filed a habeas corpus regarding his "disappearance", accusing the Indian authorities of hiding him.
India's efforts to have him deported, however, got complicated because of legal reasons. Though he was part of IM since his days in the Engineering College at Bhatkal, he was never charge sheeted for his involvement. In fact, he was detained by Saudi authorities allegedly for a minor visa-related offence.
It took a while for the Indians to put together a credible documentation on him. The charge sheet against Fasih in the Chinnaswamy Stadium case came after he was detained by the Saudi authorities. In addition, Fasih insisted he was not Indian, though his wife's legal efforts put paid to that bid.
There was disquiet in Saudi Arabia when Indian officials were seen to be arguing too much about Fasih's deportation, which annoyed the Saudis as well as MEA. Saudi Arabia remained quite sensitive about any 'hype' around deportation of either Jundal or Fasih. Saudi authorities' sensitivity was reportedly articulated even by the national security advisor Shivshankar Menon last when he told a gathering of police chiefs that the media leaks of details of operation that led to the arrest of Jundal had upset Riyadh. He underlined the need for ensuring complete secrecy in police operations and advised them not to compromise sources in claiming "operational glory". He wanted secrecy to be maintained at all levels in handling cases of international terrorism as the acts have "dangerous propensity of international embarrassment".
The deportation also underlined the deepening security cooperation with Saudi Arabia. The latest assistance by the Saudis is another step in the evolution of a relationship. Saudi Arabia has been jolted by the al-Qaeda attack against Prince Nayef earlier, and there is a general "pivot" towards India and China, which are becoming anchor partners for Saudi Arabia. Sources said, India and Saudi Arabia have deepened security cooperation, and would continue to do so, as a measure of the growing bilateral ties.
India is now eyeing Kagzi (a resident of Beed in Maharashtra who has been on the run since the Aurangabad arms haul episode in 2006) and four others who have been hiding in Saudi Arabia. Kagzi, a close associate of IM founder Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, has been hiding in Saudi Arabia since August, 2009. Before fleeing to Saudi Arabia, he had spent time first in Pakistan and then in Sri Lanka after his name cropped up in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.
The home secretary said Saudi Arabia had never stated that Fasih would not be deported but it took some time. Singh said Fasih was the "key facilitator" for 13 IM terrorists, who were arrested from various places including in Bihar and UP late last year. Though the home secretary did not elaborate on the crime of Fasih in Saudi Arabia where he had to serve a sentence before deportation, other officials said that the accused was arrested there for allegedly violating visa-related rule where he as a foreigner was supposed to report to the local law enforcement agency.
Jundal was deported to India by the Saudi authorities in June as part of enhanced intelligence and security related cooperation between two countries. Besides these two, A Rayees, an associate of suspected Let operative T Nazir, was also deported from Saudi Arabia. He was deported and arrested in connection with a 2009 explosives seizure case of Kerala. He was arrested by Kerala Police in Mumbai earlier this month, when he arrived from Saudi Arabia on his deportation after being jailed there in connection with a visa violation case. Nazir, the prime accused in the case, is already in jail and is facing several other terror cases....................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAxMi8xMC8yMyNBcjAwMTAx&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
