Everything at a Stop

The Mumbai Police for the first time on Tuesday released the pictures of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.

Some of the pictures are from the IDs found on them after they were killed in the encounter. These men have been identified as Bada Abdul Reheman, Abdul Reheman Chota, Isamal Khan, Nasir Aka Abu Umar and Babar Imran (Abu Akasa).
Police have obtained the names of nine terrorists, killed in encounter during November 26 terror attack on Mumbai, from Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman who was caught alive and is in police custody, a senior police official said.

The two persons who attacked the Chhatrapati Shivjai Terminus and Cama Hospital have been identified as Ismail Khan alias Abu Ismail from Dera Ismail Khan and Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman alias Abu Mujahid from Okara, the arrested terrorist, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.

Those who attacked Taj Hotel in south Mumbai were identified as Hafeez Arshad alias Bada Abdul Rehman from Multan, Javed alias Abu Ali from Okara, Shoaib alias Soheb from Sialkot and Nazeer alias Abu Umer from Faisalabad, he said.

Nasir alias Abu Umar from Faisalabad and Babar Imran alias Abu Akasha from Multan are the two terrorists who attacked the Jewish community centre in Nariman house in the Colaba area, Maria said.

Abdul Rehman alias Abdul Rehman Chhota from Multan and Fahadullah alias Abu Fahad from Okara were the duo who attacked the Trident Oberoi hotel, he said.

"Shoaib, who was 20-years-old was the youngest of the group while Nasir was the oldest at 28," Maria said. Nasir is suspected to have been married and his wife either died or divorced him, he said, adding that the average age of the members of the group was between 23 to 25 years.

Nasir, Nazeer and Ismail Khan, allegedly the leader of the group, had participated in terror missions earlier, Maria said. He refused to specify any details of their previous missions.

"All of them were given the aliases during training to prevent them from knowing each others original names," Maria said. The terrorists are suspected to have been trained for over a year at four locations in Pakistan.

While sailing for three days into Indian waters on board the Gujarat-based fishing vessel 'Kuber', which the terrorists allegedly hijacked, the members of the group spoke with each other and Ajmal learnt of the others' names and where they lived, he said.

Some members of the group like Ajmal also underwent indoctrination at the training camps for about three weeks before undergoing training in arms and explosives for close to a year, the joint commissioner said.

The police said they were still examining the contents of the four Global Positioning System (GPS) devices recovered from the terrorists.

"We are examining the contents of the GPS, one satellite phone and nine mobile phones that have been recovered," Maria said. He refused to comment on whether the SIM cards found in the mobile phones were of Indian origin.

"One of the SIM cards bought in Kolkata was used by the terrorists here," Maria said. The Kolkata police have arrested two persons for obtaining SIM cards for mobile phones using forged documents and providing them to traders who dealt in shawls and the matter is being investigated further, he said.

The city police will also be applying for the custody of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Sabauddin, who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police earlier this year.

Pakistani authorities have reportedly imposed restrictions on the movement of Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Maulana Masood Azhar and confined him to his home despite turning down India's demand for handing him over.

Azhar, who was freed by Indian authorities along with two other terrorists in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines flight hijacked from Kathmandu to Kandahar in 1999, has been confined to his multi-storey building in Model Town area of Bahawalpur, 'The News' daily reported on Tuesday.

The report quoted official sources as saying that Azhar's activities had been restricted in the wake of India's demand to hand him over along with criminals Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon.

There was no official word on whether Azhar had been restricted to his home. The Pakistan Army yesterday confirmed it had launched an operation against banned militant groups.

Lashker-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi is among over 20 militants arrested during the crackdown, sources said.

The Pakistan Government yesterday turned down India's demand to hand over Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon. The demand had been made in a demarche handed over by india in the wake of the mumbai terror attacks.

Azhar's movements have been restricted in the past too when India had demanded his handing over. There have been reports in recent months that Azhar and the Jaish had stepped up activities, including the raising of funds and organising large rallies, in the Bahawalpur area.

The militant leader was being held in an Indian jail when he was released by the Indian government in exchange for passengers of the airplane hijacked by several Pakistani terrorists and taken to Kandahar.

Soon after his release, Azhar formed the Jaish.

Azhar and his group had faced restrictions in the wake of the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament and the 2003 suicide attacks on former President Pervez Musharraf.

The Jaish was renamed as Khudam-ul-Islam and reorganised under the command of Mufti Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of Azhar.

The US State Department designated the Jaish a foreign terrorist organisation in December 2001, forcing the Musharraf regime to slap a ban on the group in January 2002.

Azhar was formally arrested by Pakistani authorities in December 2001 following the attack on India's parliament but a review board of the Lahore High Court ordered his release a year later.

Azhar reportedly fell out of favour with the Pakistani establishment in the wake of American allegations about his Al Qaida links and because of the belief that he had been providing logistical support to fugitive Al Qaida and Taliban leaders.

The Prime Minister Department has decided that petrol and diesel will be reduced and for petrol will cost less at Rs5 per litre, , while diesel will cost less at Rs2 a litre effective midnight.

The oil price adjustments may be decided outside the cabinet to speed up the process and make sure the benefit is passed down to consumers as soon as possible.

The Deccan Mujahideen group that claimed responsibility for last week’s terror attacks in Mumbai, has now threatened to attack the New Delhi, Banglore and Chennai airports between December 3 and 7.

the threat was given through an e-mail sent from Saudi Arabia and received by the Indra Gandhi Airport officials.

Security at all the Indian airports was put on high alert after the e-mail.

Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai airports on high alert

Earlier, on November 26, the little known group had claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks that left almost 200 people dead.

Most spy agencies around the world are reportedly clueless about the antecedents of the Deccan Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for the planned and synchronized terror strikes in Mumbai.

"Initially we saw violence in India imported from outside - with allegations of Pakistani government support - but now we are seeing new, homegrown groups," CBS quoted Nigel Inkster, director of Transnational Threats at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, as saying last week.

FBI team detained at Mumbai airport, released later

"There is a possible link to al Qaeda. Logically it would be easier for al Qaeda to get things done in India than in the US and Europe. Everyone's been expecting some type of pre-US election or post-US election spectacular, and there is some speculation that this is it," he added.

A foreign news agency quoted a British security official as saying that terror threats in India had been increasing but the scale of the attack on Wednesday was a surprise and there were no indications attacks would target Westerners.

Experts, western media blame Indian Mujahideen

"We have been actively monitoring plots in Britain and abroad and there was nothing to indicate something like this was about to happen," the official told the AP.

CBS News reported that US officials had not heard of Deccan Mujahideen before Wednesday.

Another British security official told AP that, though it is too early to know for sure, the attack doesn't look to have been directed by al Qaeda's core leadership.

But he said the fact Westerners had been singled out suggested it was inspired by Islamic extremist ideology.

Terror e-mail warns of more attacks

A US counter-terrorism official warned against leaping to conclusions but said the Mumbai attacks bore some hallmarks of operations by Pakistani groups.

Two policeman were injured when a group of Six men opened fire on them at Santosh Nagar, Hyderabed.

Constables Jafar and Rama Raju were hurt when the unidentified men opened fire after they came across the policemen, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Zone) Atul Singh said.

The injured policemen were admitted to a super-specialty hospital in the city.

Singh said the antecedents of the miscreants, who were about six in number, were being ascertained. Residents of the locality said the youth were local residents.

Deccan Mujahideen terror email sent from Lahore

Indian agencies tracing the source of the email sent by the hitherto unknown outfit calling itself Deccan Mujahideen to a TV channel claiming responsibility for the terror attacks on Mumbai have found that the text was routed through Lahore in Pakistan before travelling to different locations through anonymous remailer service.

Though other locations are yet to be traced, the experts, who took help of different foreign agencies including that of US, found that the terrorists used a Russian server to avail the remailer service which is the most secure and least traceable way to send emails.

The text document sent by Deccan Mujahideen was generated using voice-recognition software which allows dictated text to be typed in Devnagri script.

Deccan Mujahideen terror email sent from Lahore

Contrary to the normal Internet service which can easily trace the origin of an email through IP address of a particular computer, the remailer service not only deletes IP address but also all details including the sources from where someone might have requested for the secret service.

The two-page-long email, in Hindi peppered with Urdu, is in the form of a notice to the Indian government and a warning to India’s Hindus.

Content of the e-mail

Not the Warning but the Fact

We inform and warn India’s government to stop the continuous injustice against the Muslims.

Return all the states that were seized from the Muslims. We are that “nation” which never forgets its history and repeats its history over and over again. The fresh examples of which are Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia and Kashmir.

Whatever you had to do you have done and what we had to endure we have endured. This is now our innings and we won’t let go of it. We will play our innings in style.

We know the Indian government won’t take this warning seriously. We are determined that this warning be made real and therefore you have already witnessed its vivid example in Mumbai.

Hindus, do not think India’s ATS and army are laced with modern weapons and are therefore courageous.
This attack is a reaction to those actions that Hindus have been carrying out since 1947. There will be no actions now, only reactions and they will continue until we have avenged every injustice done to us. It will continue till we take back all our seized states.

It is now time that Hindus give up thinking that martyring of Muslims’ mosques, weakening Muslims’ economic condition through riots, and putting educated youths in prison will weaken our confidence. We will not let that happen, not at any cost.

Deccan Mujahideen

P Chidambaram has taken charge as the new Home Minister of India. In his first press conference after taking over the new office on Monday he promised to deliver and sought the help of the people of India, state governments and the media.

Chidambaram said that he will respond with determination and resolve to the grave threat posed to the nation. He said that there will be a deep sense of unity of purpose while dealing with the situation.

He added that terrorism is a threat to the very idea of India and emphasized that the idea of India will triumph in the end.

A day after the terror attacks on Mumbai ended, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil who had been under fire for long over a spate of terror attacks in the country, resigned on Sunday.

His replacement is current Finance Minister P Chidambaram. However, Chidambaram will no longer hold the charge of the Finance Ministry. It will go to the Prime Minister.

NDTV has learnt that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh may be next to go. But the CM has said there's no question of him quitting.

Intelligence Bureau director, Home Secretary and other bureaucrats may also be asked to quit.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and said that he would not resign from his post. Patil, after meeting Deshmukh at his official residence 'Varsha' in south Mumbai, said that there is no possibility of his resignation.

According to latest reports, some senior bureaucrats may also be asked to go, but no one's sure whose head is on the chopping block.

Earlier, Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned owning moral responsibility for the Mumbai attacks that left almost 200 people dead and the entire nation angry over the latter part of this week.

The home minister has had a troubled stint right through the over four years of the Congress-led UPA regime, and there has been a clamour for his resignation every time there has been a terror attack in the country.

At the Congress Working Committee meeting on Saturday Sonia Gandhi took the lead in saying that irrespective of the elections there is a feeling that the government and the party must take responsibility.

Taking the cue, other senior leaders like Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal and H R Bhardwaj attacked Patil, without naming him, saying somebody must be held responsible.

The refrain of these leaders at the meeting was that strong action is needed in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes and accountability has to be ensured at the higher as well as lower levels.

Patil then offered to step down, saying he was ready for any decision the CWC took.

The home ministry under Patil has been criticized for not having acted upon Intelligence reports about the likelihood of a major terror attack much before the Mumbai siege happened.

Patil, who has been in public life for over four decades, was brought into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as he was considered a complete Gandhi loyalist. Since his appointment, Sonia Gandhi had turned down repeated demands for his ouster from the government.


Patil was also one of the Congress' candidates for the post of President last year after the tenure of A P J Abdul Kalam got over. But, the Left parties, which were supporting the government from outside, had put their foot down.

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