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| India-Pakistan |
| 'Congrats' calls expose Pak, Bangla link to Mumbai train bombings |
| 2006-07-13 |
| Just after the Mumbai blasts, a call from Karachi to Dhaka said: "Mubarakan, mubarakan (congratulations)" — a clear mission-accomplished message. Around the same time, a call from PCO near Juhu, Mumbai, went to an anxious "mother" in Karachi. The caller assured his mother that he was all right (salamat) but could not disclose his location and, saying he could not talk at length, hung up. An intensive intelligence operation involving central agencies and Mumbai police is on, trawling telecom gateways in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata to track calls which contain "footprints" to Tuesday’s serial blasts. The gateways route calls to Pakistan and Bangladesh, the two places where the terror mastermind could be holed up. The task is daunting but crucial. It’s backbreaking and intensive work. But as communication had to be the key in such a meticulously terror operation, there were bound to be some tell-tale evidence — use of codes for bombs — that the perpetrators would have used. Never a simple task, the job of investigators has been made even more difficult because the post-blast chaos at the train stations may well have destroyed precious forensic evidence and the mobile handsets of some of the terrorists who may have been able to alight from the trains on time. As part of the cat-and mouse game, terrorists, said officials, have been getting wiser. No PCO is used twice. Masterminds always interface through Thruway sat phones, the ability to track which is limited to a few organisations. Most police forces cannot track these hand-held sat phones, now common in West Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, the calls are often routed through a third country in a variation of conferencing. In Kathmandu, the police on Thursday confirmed arresting Pakistanis for dealing with RDX but the connection to the Mumbai blasts was not established. "There could be some connection ... we are not certain at this point," an officer said. Investigations in Nepal have been joined by an Indian team comprising RAW, Delhi police Special Cell and IB officials. The tip-off was from India. Two of those held have been identified as Aftab Moiuddin and Ghulam Hussain Cheema. RAW sources said there was, as yet, no definitive link between the Pakistanis and the blasts. The men were arrested from Kathmandu hotels the same night the blasts took place. The local media had on Thursday reported that two persons were arrested from Hotel Everest and the others from a hotel near Thamel, Kathmandu’s tourist hub. A senior police officer said two of the arrested were released after initial investigations, but the other two were still in custody. Asked why they were taken into custody on the night of the blasts, another officer said anyone who hides and deals with explosives like RDX is considered a terrorist. |
| Posted by:john |
| #5 Uh oh! YOu've got some splaining to do! |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-07-13 22:44 |
| #4 nahhhh payphone down the street. "untraceable" according to the ISI |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-13 21:30 |
| #3 Dunno, Frank, I think my surprise meter's busted. Not because it didn't register, but because all the digits started flashing and smoke started coming out of the casing. Apparently it couldn't handle such a total lack of surprise. 'Course, the big question is how many of these calls -- and the call chains they started -- ended at the offices of the ISI. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-07-13 21:08 |
| #2 wotta surprise...I'm flummoxed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-13 18:53 |
| #1 n Kathmandu, the police on Thursday confirmed arresting Pakistanis for dealing with RDX but the connection to the Mumbai blasts was not established. What interesting commerce these Pakistanis deal in. |
| Posted by: john 2006-07-13 18:36 |