No luck on email trail; cops focus on Marathwada terror recruitment

Maharashtra Police has stepping up vigilance to counter the terrorist outfits.

Maharashtra Police has stepping up vigilance to counter the terrorist outfits that,they claim to have found,are actively radicalising and recruiting youth from Marathwada region even as they continue to look for a breakthrough in the probe into the suspected Indian Mujahideen email sent from Navi Mumbai after the Varanasi blast. It is true that youth from Marathwada are being recruited by terrorist outfits, DGP D Sivanandhan told The Indian Express Friday. We will do all we can to crack down on terror networks in the state… Investigations are being carried out into the email sent from Navi Mumbai.

Sivanandhan said Special IG (Aurangabad),Sanjay Kumar,has been asked to set up a cyber-cell in Marathwada to monitor cyber traffic and create awareness about cyber security. It is also necessary to create awareness about cyber-security in sensitive areas and to have the capacity to thwart future attempts at hacking. That is why we intend to set up a cyber cell in the Aurangabad region. It can be set up in partnership with experts in the IT sector, he said.

This cell,the DGP added,will monitor sensitive areas such as Beed,Jalna and Parbhani which have figured on the map of terrorists in the past. Mirza Himayat Baig,the lone suspect arrested for the German Bakery blast in Pune,is also alleged to have been based and operated out of a cyber café in Marathwadas Latur.

Meanwhile,investigators said they were yet to get leads about the identities of those who sent the e-mail after the Varanasi blast by hacking into the WiFi account of DJ Akhil Talrejas house in Vashi,Navi Mumbai. They said they are revisiting earlier cases involving the IM and looking for its men who continue to evade the police Mohsin Chaudhary,brother of arrested IM man Akbar Ismail Chaudhary,Mohammed Mobeen Abdul Shakoor Khan alias Irfan,Amin alias Raja Ayub Shaikh,and Abu Rashid. Rashid owned a garment factory in Sewri,Mumbai,from where arms and ammunition were recovered,while Irfan and Amin helped Afzal Usmani steal cars used for planting IEDs in Ahmedabad and Surat in 2008.

There were some other names that cropped up during investigations… There might be networks of the IM still existing in Marathwada and Vidarbh areas, said a top state police officer.