All links lead to mastermind Sheikh

Arrested ultras have revealed they planned to hit J-K leaders in Kolkata

RITU SARIN

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 17: After the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, Pak-based militants desperately tried to free an equally important ideologue — Nasarullah Langriyal, now lodged in Jodhpur jail. And it was Omar Sheikh — freed along with Masood Azhar in 1999 — who was ‘‘tasking’’ operatives for Langriyal’s release.

Langriyal, who was arrested in Kashmir in November 1993 (three months before Masood Azhar), was detained with him in Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu.

They were together in the daring jailbreak of September 1999, when a 23-foot long tunnel was dug only to be discovered by prison police. Their third associate, Sajjad Afghani, was killed in a jail riot that followed. After Masood’s release, Langriyal was shifted to Jodhpur jail.
Omar Sheikh’s role in trying to secure Langriyal’s release and in targeting Kashmiri politicians visiting Kolkata, is revealed in testimonies of some militants arrested recently.

Besides the interrogation of Asif Raza Hussain, main accused in the Santhalpur arms recovery case (killed in December 2001 in Rajkot), The Indian Express accessed the interrogation of Arshad Khan, another Pakistani accused, who is still in prison and confessed to Omar Sheikh being the one who tasked them for the India operations.

Arshad Khan is an activist of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islami (HUJI) who fought along with Taliban forces against the Northern Alliance and admitted he had a series of meetings with Omar Sheikh after his release at Kandahar.

Arshad was arrested in October 2001 and later confessed, ‘‘I was briefed by Pak-based operators to infiltrate into India and execute the tasks of getting Qari Sayeed Aubaida (a HUJI leader lodged in Tihar) and Nassullah Langriyal out by attacking police parties escorting them from jail to court on their court days.’’

He said that the operation was to be carried out by four HUJI activists named Naeem Ahmed, Nabi Tabassum, Ashraf and Ishaq.
Interestingly, Arshad Khan revealed that both Aftab Ansari (described by him as a Dubai based gangster), Asif Raza Khan and his brother Arif Raza Khan were party to these plots. In July 2001, the gang abducted Partha Burman Roy, the proprietor of Khadim shoes in Kolkata.

The three of them kept in touch with Omar Sheikh on e-mail but were arrested after the first cache of arms was recovered in Santhalpur in October 2001. Arshad Khan was arrested on October 30, three days after the first arrests.

Intelligence reports reveal that when Ansari visited Islamabad in August 2001, he was put in touch with Omar Sheikh and besides being asked to cover operations launched through Bangladesh, asked to target political leaders, to secure the Langriyal’s release.

While Langriyal was earlier in the HUJI, he joined the Harkat-ul-Ansar after it was launched and is described as an ideologue as important as Masood Azhar. In this backdrop, the Kolkata attack hardly comes as a surprise as these interrogations make it evident the city was to be the location for several planned operations.

In his confessional, Asif Raza Khan said for one operation he posed as a freelance journalist and went to Kolkata. He confessed, ‘‘I was asked to hit those Congress (I), National Conference and CPM Kashmiri leaders who were against the Kashmiri militant movement during their visits to Kolkata.’’

The list of leaders Asif Raza said he was to target, included Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference and Saifuddin Soz and Gulam Nabi Azad, also of the Congress. Asif Raza said that he had another ‘‘secondary’’ list of targets which included Jagmohan.