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Man behind terror mails held: Police
The Mumbai police on Monday claimed to have foiled a plan to carry out blasts across the city by arresting 15 “key operatives” of the Indian Mujahideen, reports Debasish Panigrahi and Presley Thomas.
The Mumbai police on Monday claimed to have foiled a plan to carry out blasts across the city by arresting 15 “key operatives” of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). Security agencies claim IM is responsible for a series of blasts across the country since January 2005.
“October 26 was fixed as the attack date,” said Anti-Terrorism Squad chief, Joint Commissioner of Police Hemant Karkare.
On September 24, the Crime Branch had arrested five alleged IM members, including co-founder Mohammad Sadiq Sheikh.
Eighteen of the 20 men arrested so far have no criminal records.
Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor said the latest arrests included techies and mechanical engineers — who allegedly operated IM’s “media wing”, which sent terror e-mails before blasts.
Its leader, Mohammed Peerbhoy (31), is a software professional with a multinational, drawing an annual salary of Rs 19 lakh.
Others arrested included those who collected explosives, assembled bombs and planted them. They were nabbed in operations on September 28, October 4 and October 5, from Pune and Mangalore.
“They would send the e-mails from unprotected wi-fi systems,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria.
Police said it was Peerbhoy who sent the mails prior to the July 26 blasts in Ahmedabad. A group of four, led by him, set out from Pune at 9 am that day, hacking into the mail of American Ken Haywood in Navi Mumbai at 6.40 pm.
A similar method was used to send the terror mails prior to the September 13 blasts in Delhi.
Police claimed these IM members were given Rs 70,000 to undergo a crash course in hacking at an institute in Pune early this year.
