Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates and was brought to India by a CBI team. On January 25 Interpol issued a red corner notice against the Dubai-based criminal who has been wanted in India for a number of cases, including the kidnapping of a Kolkata businessman Partha Roy Burman and the more recent attack on the police picket guarding the US consulate. Shortly after the attack, Ansari called a police officer in Kolkata and claimed his role in the attack, which he had said was to avenge the killing of his associate, Asif Reza Khan in Gujarat. Ansari is described by intelligence agencies as being a part of a new breed of jehadis who use criminal activities to finance their terrorist activities. Intelligence agencies say that Ansari used the proceeds of the Roy Burman kidnapping for supporting terrorist activities and may have sent US$ 100,000 to Ahmad Umar Sheikh, a British national and associate of Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief.
Caller ID is making life hard for crooks nowadays. It's interesting, the way all these dots connect: Ansari to Azhar to Omar Sheikh to Mohammad Atta to Osama bin Laden to... which clergyman in Saudi Arabia?
Ansari was on his way to Pakland
MEA special secretary Rajendra Abhyankar said the Dubai police had held Ansari and another crook on January 23. Ansari was arrested at the Dubai airport while trying to escape to Islamabad. Though India and the UAE had signed an extradition treaty in 1999, the Ansari was deported to avoid the lengthy process involved in extradition.
Islamabad, huh? Wonder who he knows there? Oh, yeah. Those dots. |