WANTED FAMILY

COVER STORY
THE MEMONS
INDIA'S MOST
WANTED FAMILY
By SHEKHAR GUPTA with M. RAHMAN and RAHUL PATHAK
I
N the usually staid and tight-lipped intelligence community it has already been labelled the Mother of all Investigations. The shock-waves of the March 12 serial bombings in
Bombay are still rocking not just New Delhi and Bombay but
have even affected Pakistan and West Asia, and the fall-out is
an increased threat for Pakistan of being declared a terrorist
state by the US. Intelligence sources say that non-governmental fundamentalist Islamic groups seem to be emerging as
prime movers in the conspiracy with the assistance of
Pakistan's isi. The international dimension also became
clearer last week with the Lebanese Coast Guard's capture of a
ship laden with explosives heading for India.
It's clearly the most complicated and most comprehensive
investigation of its kind being handled by the Indian intelligence establishment encompassing international terrorism,
smuggling, the domestic mafia, money-laundering and drug
syndicates. The search for Bombay's 12-member Memon
40
family, which escaped to Dubai on an Emirates flight between
March 1 and 12, directly involves nearly 600 investigators,
top officials of all the intelligence agencies, the Home, Defence
and External Affairs Ministries and nearly a dozen embassies,
besides Interpol and terrorism experts in Washington, D.C.,
and London. Even Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has
assured Narasimha Rao that he has ordered an "unprecedented man-hunt" for the Memons who, if found, would be
returned to India "gift-wrapped". Riaz Hussain Khokhar, the
Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi, told INDIA TODAY
that the Memons could indeed have entered Pakistan though
not necessarily with their own names and passports. He said
the Memons had not been issued any Pakistani visas in India.
South Block is sceptical but the fact is that Islamabad finds
itself under unprecedented pressure over the issue (see box).
With the police working on three crucial leads—the
chassis numbers of the car involved in the Air India-building
blast, the key of the scooter with the bomb that did not explode,
and the abandoned maroon Maruti van containing AK-56
renades and AK-56s
were distributed
as riots were
expected to
^ follow the
blasts;
He became
a terror in the
Nagpada, Pydhonie,
Agripada
w
and Dongri areas. To
HE country's top investigators have now been climbing most he was simply Tiger.
up the pan-stained stairs of the seven-storey Al Hussain Neighbours steered clear of
building near Mahim police station where the Memons the flamboyant and arrogant
lived, looking for clues to the whereabouts of the large, low- Tiger though harbouring a sneakprofile, but generally dreaded joint family occupying apart- ing admiration for him. "He was the
ment numbers 21, 22, 23, 26 and 27 on the fifth and sixth first in our area to acquire a Maruti 1000,
floors. The family consists of father Abdul Razzak, 65, his wife a blazing red one with the number G JI3 73 7,"
Hanifa, and six sons—Arif alias Suleman, 34; Ibrahim alias recalls a resident.
Tiger, a commerce graduate, started out as a
Mushtaq alias Tiger, 33; Yakub, 31; Ayub, 29; Anjum alias
Essa, 24; and Yusuf, 22. The Memons are Sunnis from the bank clerk, and surfaced in police records when he
Kutch region.
fired at a customs party in 1985. The incident created an
Despite the Memon sect's traditional trading skills, Abdul aura around him in the underworld. He thrived as a 'landing
Razzak never found much success in business. The family agent' for Dubai smuggling syndicates and soon became a
started life in a Bhendi Bazaar building and when that smuggler in his own right, rubbing shoulders with bettercollapsed in 1980, they moved to a transit flat in Mahim's known underworld figures such as the Dossa brothers—
Machimar Nagar, finally moving to Al Hussain in 1988. His Mohammed and Mustafa (alias Majnu), Iqbal Mirchi and
eldest son Arif became an income tax officer but quit and Salim Sarang alias Talwar.
began working in Saudi Arabia.
He was arrested again in 1989 for carrying an unlicensed
Yakub, mild-mannered and debonair, passed his char32 revolver and yet again a year later and charged with
tered accountancy exam five years ago and opened a firm, rioting during the 1990 Assembly elections. Recalls Assistant
C.C. Mehta and Memon Associates, along with schoolmate Commissioner of Police Madhukar Zende, who became
Chetan Mehta. Though the partnership did not last, Mehta nationally famous for arresting Charles Sobhraj:' 'Tiger was a
still remembers him as a gentle person and finds it difficult to very aggressive fellow and not many tangled with him."
believe he could be involved in the bombings. Yakub also set
In April 1989, on the notorious Shuklaji Street of central
up a meat export firm, Tejarath International.
Bombay, a customs party raided the first floor of a building and
Abdul Razzak's second son, Ibrahim, took to business,
found eight gold bars belonging to Tiger's associate, Mohambut of the illegal variety, smuggling precious metals. med Dossa. While three customs officers were concluding the
search, Tiger arrived and announced
The Memons at the wedding of
dramatically: "I'm Tiger, and you dare
Yakub and Ayub: (from left)
not remove the gold." He then banged
Rubina (Arif s wife), Arif, Shabana
his forehead into Customs Officer
(Tiger's wife), Tiger, Yakub, Rahin
Roshan Neogi's face. Neogi was
hospitalised with a broken nose. Tiger
(Yakub's wife), Reshma (Ayub's
wife), Ayub, Hanifa (the mother),
managed to escape.
Abdul Razzak (the father), Anjum,
Tiger has been on the wanted list of
Bombay Customs since 1989. In 1990, a
and Yusuf: the occasion provided a
COFEPOSA order was passed against him
valuable photo album to the police.
(below): the Al Hussain building
listing two major gold smuggling ofFAWZAN HUSAIN
fences—300 gold bars worth Rs 2 crore
in one case and 4,520 gold bars worth
Rs28 crore in another. A penalty of Rs 75
lakh was also slapped on him. Along
with notoriety, Tiger acquired a vast
fortune. An underworld source puts the
value of the family's fortune at Rs 15-20
crore which includes several businesses
and real estate.
Two years ago, Yakub and Ayub
were married at a glittering joint wedding at the Islam Gymkhana on Marine
Drive, an occasion which provided an
invaluable photo album to the police.
Some prominent film personalities and
social celebrities attended the wedding.
Besides money, the Memon family was
keen on Hindi cinema and cricket.
Yakub, in fact, was the captain of a local
cricket team.
Besides the home and offices in
Mahim and a flat in Bandra occupied by
Tiger's mistress nicknamed Baya, the
rifles and grenades—all traced to the Memons—the family
has emerged as the nucleus of the diabolical international
conspiracy of which the March 12 blasts were merely the
beginning. Unprecedented rioting was to follow in Bombay.
T
COVER STORY
SIMILAR STRIKES
Investigators point out striking similarities between the
blast at New York's World
Trade Centre and those in
Bombay. Notably:
• Czech RDX and Semtex, a
branded type of RDX, were
used in both explosions.
World Trade
Centre in New York
• A major financial centre
was the target in both cases.
• Car bombs were planted
in basements of buildings.
• Blasts took place at lunchhour on Fridays, an important prayer time of the week
for the devout, suggesting a
fundamentalist connection.
The targeted
BSE building
• Amateur bombers bought
cars carelessly enough for
them to be traced back.
family owned shops and residences in the Mohammad Ali
Road area, and land in Santa Cruz, on which they planned to
develop shops in Manish Market (a smuggled goods centre).
Tiger was said to be involved in a dispute over a shop with
influential bullion dealers in the glittering Zaveri Bazaar.
Police say this could be one reason (the other being strong
financial support to the Hindutva movement by Zaveri Bazaar
businessmen) why Tiger placed three scooter bombs in the
crowded market.
To help in the business, Arif had resigned his Saudi job and
gone to Dubai, where he was joined by Ayub. Underworld
sources say while Tiger controlled smuggling, his brothers
laundered money. Anj um assisted Yakub in Bombay. Only the
somewhat retarded Yusuf remained idle.
Yakub was planning to enter two new areas—real estate
development and politics. Said an acquaintance: "He was
showing interest in local issues.'' But the recent riots changed
all that. The Memons' offices on Lady Jamshedji Road were
ransacked and burnt. Riot victims from Wadala flocked to the
orphanage next to their home with stories of savage killings.
Recalls Yakub's mother-in-law Maimoona, who lives on Al
Hussain's first floor: "We used to hear shrieks of women who
seemed to have gone crazy, having lost sons and husbands."
It is impossible to know if the riots persuaded the Memons
to make the transition from being part of Bombay's prosperous
underworld to becoming its first home-grown urban terrorists. Or, whether the motive was a combination of communal
vengeance and mercenary gain, along with the destruction of
their smuggling and havala business by lifting of import
controls on gold and silver and rupee convertibility. Police
say Tiger, who had turned very religious in the last two
years and sported a long beard, returned to Bombay from
Dubai in the third week of January after finalising the
conspiracy with the mafia bosses in Dubai. Dawood Ibrahim is
42
being mentioned as a suspect (see box).
After relentless questioning of suspected carriers and the
Memons' henchmen, investigators are now able to piece
together at least that part of the jigsaw. On February 8, a huge
consignment of nearly 2,000 kg of RDX, mixed with other
material and shaped like extra large soap cakes, was off-loaded
from a boat at Shekhadi village south of Shrivardhan on
Maharashtra's picturesque Konkan coast (see box). Unusually, Tiger personally went to Shekhadi with his bodyguard
Anwar Theiba to supervise the landing, which was organised
by the area's biggest landing agent, Dadabhai Parkar. The
explosive was packed in cardboard cartons, some of which
had the -marking Packnie Packaging Ltd, Lahore. If it was
indeed a Pakistani intelligence operation it seems odd that the
isi would leave these markings on the boxes. This is one of the
factors that persuades intelligence officials to believe that the
prime movers of the operation were pan-Islamic fundamentalist groups working outside state control. Incidentally,
the markings of the AK-56 rifles had been erased on a lathe.
The entire cargo was loaded into four Mahindra jeeps and two
Tempo vans. The vehicles left Shekhadi for Bombay at
30-minute intervals.
A CCORDING to Bombay Police's reconstruction of the plot
/-V based on interrogation reports, once the consignment
JL JL was safely stored, Tiger began organising the training
of about 20 specially chosen men. Between February 12 and
20, these men were flown in groups of two or three to Dubai,
from where they were taken on a PIA flight to Karachi. Each
person received basic training for 12 days in handling AK-56
rifles, hand grenades, detonators and explosives. The instructors were dressed in plain clothes and the training took place at
a spot about two hours' drive from Karachi. In the group was
Gul Mohammed, 20, owner of a Vile Parle marble shop, who
resided in the Behrampada shanty-town, the scene of sustained violence during the January riots. He is now in
police custody. According to the underworld grapevine,
Tiger was paid Rs 20 crore for the whole operation besides
expenses.
The last group of trained terrorists returned in the first
week of March. D-Day was at hand. On March 11, a day before
the bombing, about 300 kg of the explosive was moved from
the New Bombay godown to the parking garage owned by the
Memons on the ground floor of Al Hussain. The vehicles and
scooters were loaded and ready with their deadly packages by
2 a.m. and the garage was thoroughly washed.
Tiger left for Sahar Airport to catch the Emirates EK 501
flight which took off at 4.31 a.m. on March 12, leaving the final
phase in the safe hands of three of his most trusted lieutenants—Anwar Theiba, Javed Chikna and Shaft. The blasts
began, as planned at 1.26 p.m.
The morning after the blasts, unaware that the police were
already hot on their trail, Yakub telephoned a Bombay
chartered accountant from Dubai and asked him to release
cheques worth Rs 60 lakh to three creditors. So by the time the
police began attaching the Memon properties, this cash had
already been taken out.
Yet the Memons failed to anticipate the speed with which
the Bombay Police cracked open the case, zeroing in on their
flat on the night of the explosions and picking up several of
their associates in the first week itself. True, the find of the
Memons' maroon Maruti van, with seven AK-56 rifles and
four hand-grenades in Worli, barely three hours after the
blast, was a lucky break. But police claim the men in the van
were unnerved by the heavy police bandobast and the
explosion of a pencil detonator inside the vehicle unhinged
them. Police Commissioner Amarjeet Singh Samra says Tiger
had boasted to his men that each detonator cost Rs 5 lakh and
could blow up a building on its own.
Explosives experts rummaging through the debris at the
Air India building were able to find a precious piece of twisted
metal giving the chassis number of the Ambassador car used
in the bombing. To cut red-tape, the Bombay Police contacted
CBI chief S.K. Dutta in New Delhi who personally called
Hindustan Motors in Calcutta to track down the dealer to
whom the car had been supplied. The breach was made and
led to the arrest of the duo, Farid Bhai and Asghar Ali Taher AH
Masalawala, who supplied the three new Bajaj scooters, and
the dealer, Sulaiman Lakdawala, who sold the three jeeps, one
Ambassador and two Maruti vans. Some of the vehicles were
modified in Lakdawala's Byculla garage to create a cavity to
accommodate the explosives.
INALLY, the police, reacting to a tip-off received by DCP
Arup Patnaik also seized nearly 1,500 kg of RDX from
Mumbra on the outskirts of Bombay. For a moment the
raiding party as well as the ace sniffer dog Zanjeer were fooled
since the godown only smelled of fish. The conspirators had
taken the precaution of wrapping the RDX in 800 yards of
gunny used to wrap fish. But once a few layers of the gunny
were removed Zanjeer went berserk and Bombay Police
heaved a sigh of relief.
Police say an utterly horrifying scenario is emerging from
their investigations into the conspiracy. The powers controlling the conspirators had expected the blasts to lead to a
massive communal backlash. By this time the AK-56 rifles
F
he prime movers
were Peshawarbased fanatical
organisations
trained by
the ISI.
and
grenades were to
be located in
communally sensitive localities so that
the mobs attacking them
could be confronted with
automatic fire and explosions.
This would have simply pushed
Bombay over the edge.
"Two things failed the perpetrators of
the crime in this objective: their over-confidence, the maturity of the people of Bombay in
keeping calm, and the Bombay Police's quick
reaction,'' a senior investigator says. In fact, investigators believe that one cause for the over-confidence was the
belief that large-scale riots were bound to follow the
explosions, sucking in the police force, thus giving the
conspirators the time and opportunity to make good their
escape. This is why their escape plans were so clumsy.
In retrospect, the police are also tracing a new pattern in
the January riots. The round of widespread stabbings, mainly
of Hindus, on January 6 and 7, after a maha arti turned violent
in the Muslim-dominated Null Bazaar area, is now being
traced to gangsters like Salim Talwar who were close to Tiger
Memon. This, Bombay Police believe, should make them view
the January riots in a different light as the stabbing was
possibly a deliberate tactic to provoke riots employed by the
same saboteurs who now once again wanted to destroy
Bombay. The logic was that if some stabbings in January
who has done this but facing facts is
more inconvenient than naming
somebody who is not there.
Q. Then who was invo!ved?Didn 't
you know the Memons?
A. Where is the need for me to say
FOR nearly a decade Dawood Ibrawho is involved when the police have
him has been the most formidable name
all the names in their files? Knowing
in the pantheon of Indian smuggling. Last
somebody is not a crime.
fortnight he shot into the limelight again
Q. But obviously the police can't
as India put his name no. 13 in the list of
have any enmity with you?
wanted persons given to the UAE GovA. That's the way they behave.
ernment along with the Memons. HighThey can't find a better name than
profile but utterly media-shy, the don,
mine. Even the press, when it knows I
now underpressure and palpably shaken,
am innocent, is scared of saying so
broke his silence in a rare interview with
because people will say Dawood ne
Senior Copy Editor SHEELA BHATT on the
kharid liya. (Dawood has bought
phone from Dubai. Excerpts:
them). For the police it is not a quesQ. Are you involved in the Bomtion of enmity. They don't have the
bay bombings?
courage to admit facts.
A. When God has already given
Q. Isn't it true that for once the
me so much, why would I do such a
pressure on you is intense?
thing? I have flourishing businesses in
A. There is no pressure from the
India. You all know about them. Why
police or the Government. I am not
would I jeopardise them? Also, have I
worried about that. But adverse
ever, in my life, done anything against
media publicity causes me permy country? Look at my record.
sonal anguish. The truth will
Have I ever harmed a Government servant? The Memons may
"I am a victim of media publicity. come out and it cannot be hidden. Whoever did such a dashave fled. But my family is still in
India. The police visit them every If RAW and CBI hold the inquiry in tardly act, killing innocent peoday. Would I do such a thing Delhi without involving the Bombay ple, will not survive. He will be
called to account. That is also my
while my family is in India?
Police, I will return to India."
fervent wish.
Q. But the police in India
DAWOOD IBRAHIM
Suspect Role
have named you as a suspect?
A. Let them complete the investigations and come up with evidence
against me and I will present myself
for interrogation by the CBI or RAW, if
the Bombay police are not involved.
The police have named me because I
am a good alibi. They can't get
Dawood, so name him. They know
^_
akistan admits
resulting
in 30-odd
the Memons may
deaths could
create
such riots,
have come to
serial blasts of this
were bound to creKarachi but
^ ate kind
unmanageable mayhem. "We are dealing with a
denies its
most diabolical brain behind the
hand.
hand that belongs to mercenary who
would do just about anything for
money though in this case even a motivation of communal revenge may have been
there," said a senior police officer.
Such thinking and planning, intelligence
sources say, usually comes from a state and not a few
individuals. But in this case, despite the natural temptation to blame Pakistan and the isi, an entirely new
dimension is emerging. The dominant view among intelligence agencies now is that while the isi was a bashful
abettor in the crime, the prime movers were some wellknown Islamic fundamentalist organisations funded in the
Middle East linked to fundamentalist groups which sprouted
in Peshawar during the Afghan struggle.
The intelligence officials feel the Government has erred
in blaming only Pakistan even before the investigations are
complete "because it will make us look biased". The
conspiracy, they feel, stretches far beyond Pakistan.
Intelligences sources say the isi
trained the bombers and used its contacts with the smuggling syndicates to
transport the explosives. But they are
convinced the plan was masterminded
by one of the fundamentalist organisations based in Peshawar and drawing
sustenance from ultra-right wing
groups in West Asia which espouse
pan-Islamic causes and mostly function outside the ambit of state power.
This network of militant fundamentalists has taken upon itself the task of
RDX haul being weighed; (right)
detonators seized in Bombay
righting the preceived wrongs done to Islam and is financed
by fundamentalists across the Muslim world.
It is with this network that the US investigators are
linking the World Trade Centre bombing in New York. The
Americans are also establishing if the network has links
with Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rehman, the blind preacher from
Newjersey who, though not charged, is said to be close to 33year-old Mahmoud Abouhalima. Abouhalima was arrested
in Egypt on March 25 for his involvement in the World Trade
Centre blast.
As soon as Bombay erupted, two US investigators were
on the flight to India. They concluded that even if the
signatures across the blasts in Bombay and New York were
not scribbled by the same hand, the same ideals guided them
(see box). Says a top MEA official: "The Americans have told
us that they find it significant that the 'dynamics of
targeting' in both cases is the same."
Some pieces started falling in place. People being
interrogated in the US for the New York explosion seemed
aware that a decision had been taken to 'punish' the
perpetrators of the Bombay riots. They did not know the
specifics of the plan, but that is only natural because the
organisation does not sully its hands in actual operations.
Indian intelligence sources say the fundamentalist network
held a conference at Colombo on December 2 7 where the US,
India and Egypt were marked out for punishment as
countries victimising Muslims. None of the three took much
notice as such dire warnings have been routine at such
CRUCIAL LAPSES
• Though the Bombay Police informed MEA about the
Memons' escape on March
15, only imprecise names
were given. Indian missions
in the Gulf could not proceed
with incomplete names.
mi A
• The full names, sent to the
Cabinet Secretariat on March
15, were sent to MEA only on
March 17.
• The Centre got the passport details on March 21, four
days after the Memons had
fled Dubai. Impounding passports now was useless.
• The Pakistan High Commission was given the details
in an informal note on March
2 3, six days after the Memons
sneaked into Karachi.
• Foreign experts were
shocked to see debris from
blast sites cleared so fast. Although crucial clues were still
found, this should not be done
as the spread of debris is an
important factor.
C O V E R STORY
meetings. But this time around, it was not empty rhetoric.
There have already been bombing incidents in all the three
countries.
Foreign investigators have reported that Operation
Bombay was given holy sanction by the network at the
meeting. By the last week of January, affiliates of the
organisation from Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UAE had
raised at least $50 million for the mission. Western sources
put the figure at $100 million.
awaz Sharif says
the Memons will be
i returned "giftv wrapped"to
India if
caught.
This is
where Pakistan stepped in.
With the threat of
being declared a terrorist state looming over
it, Pakistan did not want the
isi to indulge in a unilateral
venture that could be nailed at its
ii;
,:.;
: : :..,
I 8 :1 •
I • III IIIj
s
H x ,:,- I :.. i;.^- ' BB I
" -:
Maharashtra's Konkan region. Until
last fortnight Suddenly, this obscure little tillage was pushed into
the national spotlight because of the
news that 59 boxes, each about oneand-a-half feet long with 30 to 35 kg
ofexplos
we
Not that smuggling is new to the
Shrlvardhan coast Silver consignments have been landing in
Shekhadi regularly, But its 'sale
haven* status has now been destroyed after 13 persons, including
Rahim Laundrywala, one of the
three landing agents arrested, were
picked up from here in connection
with
.
'-:
• ' '•
I
:" •-:-•;
j I
; -::.^-..:,-•-•-..
• • ; ' • ; '
•,:.-': I I ' i I :
J fj :;•:'>/•;;:.;; ;c
|
I^ ^
1 1 I^
p |
;-.,;\o,
,.••--. : ' : : • ' •' =
J ! •
fC:.^ ••:•:•: 3/':i
I •:/-•/• |
| j /•..,
|
j I
I o- ;•;:•>-: ./y
;..;'
C.,--:,>:-;. • . - • • • •
j j
I I j .-'>::•
•y-,.:=; r ^ ! jjj -:o-' ::,;;.-.•-'•
" f t a ^ N ^ B . : - ; - r:-:i:'^ : ^, ^'^:,':
'-•j-r(" ,i;;r. ,:-';."• '-v.^ j •f.;:/:---.:
I | •;^" ; ';'Y ! ;. ;.;-: •/-:•;; : ; ;::: : -".' ; v,
. |
•••
,"v,:.',v,:;,r.. /-/yNV'-;,:- • . . • I
Jj
| •I j • I . 1 1
.
-. • '
'
I
• . ; - • . . • . • • • . '• .
I
' •- -. .- • j j I
• i H j||j
I
I
jj
i ^^;,>.: .
•
I
' :
•
jsSSW
•/;;.-;
'
a|
jjjJ •<;:;.. -.-
•
i ..
•
and Mhasla—which were
exposed after a local strongman,
Sharif alias Dardabhai Parkar, was
arrested in Bombay recently—are
mom prosperous than other areas in
Maharashtra. "They are happy with
the money that big-time smugglers
:'
•,
like *Ttger'Memon brought in," says
IH If 1
^-,. . - . : ; : : '
a police official.
But the bomb blasts and the
• |
discovery of the smuggling racket
— "': .:, I :
• ' : -'
• I have, changed life. Villagers are un.y ••
witthig to talk and insist their acttvi•
ttes only extend to fishing and farmH . Jj ; ."'.•• • • ; ; - - / - • • v^. -:'v:.',
I H ..-•.•.."•'"- • ' • • ; • • • :^^^=;.. : ; - ing, "No landtags takeplaee. Wedon't
• H| II Li,; >•.•-••:•..•••;; I • I allow outsiders to fish in our waters,"
-... ^ •.•;•-,. ••..-;-:^..:;. -^.'rv,; • •
says a priest torn Bharadkhol. But the
• • VV'^,', I
' '. •
facts beg to differ.
-:'-.;. :
Hi I I ".:..:.•/.:'. ;-••.•:•-•:• • •
—UBKHA RATT-WANT in Shrkha.11
APRIL 15, 1993 » INDIA TODAY
49
COVER STORY
PAKISTAN
Pushed on to
the Defensive
Nawaz takes action to pacify the US
NDER virtual siege as the threat of being declared a
terrorist state by the US loomed large, Pakistan last
week launched a major diplomatic initiative. Siddique
Khan Kanju, minister of state for foreign affairs, announced
a number of steps to pacify the US which has put Pakistan on
U
to counter terrorism in the country and liaise with similar
international organisations. It is also proposed to post
observers to monitor movement across the Line of Control.
The move came on the eve of Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif s visit to Germany and Britain. Senior diplomats
believe Kanju's statement was largely aimed at mobilising
opinion in favour of Pakistan in these two important
members of the prosperous G-7 group and to assure
Washington that Islamabad would not be sponsoring
terrorism. Sharif also despatched his special assistant,
Federal Minister for Petroleum Chaudhary Nisar Ali, to
Washington to pave the way for his scheduled summer visit.
However, these measures do not seem to be sufficient to lessen
the pressure from the US as its threats are clearly motivated by
its growing concern over the nuclear issue. "The Americans
are likely to keep the pressure on until Pakistan is willing to
roll back its nuclear programme," says a senior official.
Members of the JKLF armed wing in
Rawalpindi (left); Nawaz Sharif
Pakistan, whicii was first warned
about being declared a terrorist state in
1991, found itself in trouble last Decemthe 'watchlist' of states suspected of sponsoring terrorism. ber when the Bush Administration decided to act upon the
Being on the list means international ostracism and the warning. The decision was deferred only when Pakistan
agreed to prove that all aid to Kashmiri militants from its
cutting-off of bilateral and multilateral aid and loans.
Pakistan narrowly avoided being listed along with Iran, territory had stopped. After the Democrats returned to the
North Korea, Cuba, Libya and Syria last December, but it has White House this year, there are clear signs of hardening of
not been let off the hook. The US has placed Pakistan on a six- the US position on terrorism and the nuclear issue. With less
than three months left for
month trial till June to
the expiry of the US deadundertake measures to
Nawaz has ordered the closure of the offices of line, Pakistan has stepped
ensure that terrorists rediplomatic efforts to
ceived no assistance from
Arab fundamentalist groups and the expulsion of up
convince the Clinton Adit. That explains the alacministration that its suprity with which the PakiArab militants living in Peshawar,
port to the Kashmiri milistan Government reacted
tants is just moral and
to the Indian charge that
the Memons, who allegedly masterminded the Bombay political. However, the US alleges that Pakistan has merely
'privatised' aid to the Kashmiris by continuing to support the
blasts, had fled to Karachi.
Kanju invited the international community, including Jamaat-i-Islami which is running a camp for the militants'
Western intelligence agencies are reportedly watching
India, to visit and inspect areas of Kashmir under Pakistani
control and the Indo-Pakistan border along Punjab to see for the Jamaat-i-Islami which is closely associated with the
themselves whether the charges against Pakistan have any Afghan fundamentalist group led by Gulbadin Hekmatyar
basis. He announced the establishment of an anti-terrorist cell and is also known to be providing training to Islamic
50
I N D I A TODAY * APRIL 15. 1993
militants in some 30 countries. Afghan President
Burhanuddin Rabbani is said to have complained to Pakistan about Jamaat activists participating in the Afghan civil
war. The Jamaat is also accused of helping the Tadzhik
Islamic forces. Jamaat leaders justify their support to
Kashmiri militants on the grounds of religion. The Sharif
Government, however, denies funding the Jamaat to run
training camps for Kashmiri militants. "Pakistan condemns
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We believe that
any political cause, however just, would be tarnished by
recourse to acts of terrorism," says Kanju.
The killing'of two senior CIA officials by a Pakistani
immigrant, Mir Amal Kansi, in Virginia on January 25, and
the involvement of Peshawar-based Arab fundamentalists
in terrorist activities in Egypt and Algeria are likely to be used
to recommend the ex-communication of Pakistan from the
international community. The cause of the shooting has not
yet been established, but Kansi's flat-mate, Zahid Mir,
reportedly told the court that he was upset at the US' antiMuslim policies. Kansi, who fled to Quetta in Pakistan's
western province of Baluchistan, has not been tracked down
despite a massive man-hunt. He is believed to have crossed
the border into either Iran or Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Kansi is being hailed as a hero in Quetta, his
hometown. "The CIA is our enemy and by killing its agents
Kansi has served the cause of Islam," says Rehmat Khan, a
businessman. "No one can arrest him here. Every one of us
will willingly provide him protection," asserts Atlas Khan, a
local arms dealer.
The presence on Pakistani soil of a large number of Arab
militants associated with fundamentalist organisations in
the Middle East, is a cause for worry for Pakistan facing
charges of abetting international terrorism. Thousands of
/w<ib warriors started trickling into Pakistan from more
than 20 countries during the '80s to fight with the Afghan
mujahedin in the jehad against the Soviet forces. Most of
them were activists belonging to the militant Islamic parties
which are at war with the secular governments of Egypt,
Syria, Jordan and Algeria. While some of these battlehardened Arabs have returned to their homeland, a large
number continue to operate from Peshawar. The role of
these Arabs, veterans of the Afghan war, in the Islamic
movement came to light in 1991 with reports that they
formed an important part of the Islamic Salvation Front in
Algeria. The activities of the Pakistan-based Arabs drew
international attention when Egyptian authorities discovered that a message threatening to step up terrorist activities
in Egypt was faxed from Peshawar.
Failing to monitor their activities, last month the Sharif
Government ordered the closure of all offices of the organisation run by Arabs and the expulsion of those living in
Peshawar without proper documents. However, officials
admit that it would be difficult to expel them all as the
Government does not have any record about most of them,
especially those linked with the Afghan mujahedin.
Pakistani officials believe that the issue concerning
activities of the Peshawar-based Arabs is likely to figure
when the Clinton Administration deliberates on whether
Pakistan should be put on the terrorist list.
Unlike Iran and Libya, Pakistan at this stage can hardly
afford to cut itself off economically from the western world.
There are clear signs of desperation in the Pakistan Government. In Pakistan, June is a dreaded deadline.
—ZAHID HUSSAIN in Karachi
an-lslamic militancy
is a nasty fact of life
which India, like
the west, will
havetolive
with.
doorstep.
But this was a
perfect opportunity. In one stroke, i
could harm India and
identify with a larger Islamic cause. Also, since it
had not funded the project there
was a good chance of getting away
untainted. It agreed to train the saboteurs in the rudiments of planting a bomb.
In terms of explosives technology, the
'hands' that devastated Bombay were rather
amateurish. They used pencil timers which are
among the crudest and simplest time devices to use.
Instead of going through the delicate adjustment of a
watch dial, in this case the bomber places a metal pencil with
three compartments against the RDX explosive. The steady
flow of acid from the first compartment (released when the
pencil top is pressed to break the glass acid ampule inside)
results in a tension wire snapping and firing a bullet from the
second compartment to the third, which contains a small
explosive charge, detonating the entire explosive.
The amateurism was also evident in the manner in which they
bought the cars from a dealer who knew them. Incidentally, both
Memon and Salameh, who planted the New York bomb, were
traced through the chassis numbers that survived the blasts.
But for now, the policy-makers are nervous about taking
on the Islamic fundamentalists. It is easier to train their guns
on Pakistan. India has been trying to get Pakistan declared a
terrorist state for some time. Now it feels it can exert pressure
by superimposing new skeletons over old ones. The Memons,
when the noose tightened around them, booked tickets to
Karachi, to India's undisguised glee.
It is at the top political and bureaucratic levels that India has
shown lack of purpose. The US and UK sent top terrorism experts
who stayed on despite being irritated that the police revealed
their hotel room numbers to journalists. The US is also helping
trace the origin of the captured grenades, many of which have
Austrian markings. Western sources confirm these were sold by
an Austrian firm to a West Asian country and some even to
Algeria. Algeria, has seen several major thefts from state
armouries by fundamentalist groups and several persons have
even been executed for this. But the Government has bungled in
tracing the Memons in Dubai and then Pakistan. The process
was marred by unforgivable delays (see box).
But back in Bombay, the serial bombings have brought
another realisation: whoever is targeting India has now found
the soft underbelly of a soft state. And while Bombay Police
embarks on a Rs 25-crore modernisation programme to
replace its 19th century muskets with self-loading rifles and
carbines and buys bullet-proof jeeps, the crucial question is,
would even the most diabolical of foreign brains have been
able to do such damage if the communal divide had not forced
members of a sullen and bitter community into a corner?
As the conspiracy unravels, involving predominantly the
Muslim Bombay underworld, the BJP and its ilk will use it to make
familiar noises about alleged Muslim criminality. But this is no
time to score debating points. Pan-Islamic militancy is a fact of
life. The West is already paranoid about it. The last thing India,
with the second largest Muslim population in the world, should
do is to push its Muslims into a corner where they become
vulnerable fundamentalists who sanctify violence. Bombay's
Black Friday could indeed be a mere warning of much worse to
come unless communal tensions are reduced at home.
-with ARUN KATIYAR, LEKHA RATTANANI and HARINDER BAWEJA