Gujarat alert: No Pak militants killed, ATM thieves caused false alarm
Intelligence agencies
and Gujarat police have dismissed purported home ministry official claims that three
of 10 terrorists having infiltrated from Pakistan were killed in a western
state on the basis of a March 5 tip-off by Pakistani national security adviser
Naseer Janjua to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.
Nine men initially
suspected by investigators to be part of those infiltrators as they left behind
suspicious articles at two Gujarat guest houses later turned out to be ATM
thieves from Jharkhand. The agencies maintain
that not one of the so-called 10 terrorists has either been traced or
eliminated even as border states are on alert. There has been no communication
intercept or physical clue of any large-scale cross-border infiltration by
jihadists belonging to either the Jaish-e-Mohammed or the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
On March 5 afternoon,
Janjua called up Doval to share a “disturbing input” that 10 terrorists
belonging to banned outfits had crossed over to India through the Gujarat
border a day or two before. The input was taken up on priority, with Doval and
intelligence agency chiefs working through the night to deploy 150 NSG
commandos with two Mi-17 helicopters at their disposal in Gujarat.
As there was no trace
of the 10 terrorists, all iconic buildings and previously identified
Lashkar-e-Taiba targets in Mumbai, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh were placed on alert.
On March 15, Indian TV
channels quoting a top home ministry official said three of the 10 terrorists
had been eliminated somewhere in the western states. The leak giving credence
to the Pakistani NSA’s input came on the eve of an Indo-Pak foreign ministers’
meeting on the sidelines of a SAARC ministerial.
Investigations
conducted by Hindustan Times revealed that following a high alert being sounded
in Gujarat, nine men were found to be missing from two guest houses in Bhuj,
Swagat and Sagaar, on March 5 and a nationwide manhunt was launched. The men had
fled the guest houses without paying the rent or providing any forwarding
address.
Counter-terror
operatives along with the Bhuj police broke into the rooms occupied by the nine
men and found suspicious equipment such as an acetylene gas cylinder and a gas
cutter. Fearing the worst, the agencies under instructions from Delhi traced
the whereabouts of these men through an identity card and mobile numbers.
The men were
identified as Nadeem Naseem Siddiqi, Jayalu Majid Sheikh, Jamil Akhtar, Anarul
Imtiaz Sheikh, Shahnawaz M Ansari, Mohammad Minarul Sheikh and Kabir Jadir
Sheikh. Hailing from Pakur district in Jharkhand, all of them were absconders.
“A team of Kutch
police visited Pakur district and investigations have so far revealed that they
were ATM thieves. Their modus operandi was to hijack the entire ATM machine and
then use a gas cutter to recover money,” Gujarat border range inspector general
AK Jadeja told Hindustan Times on Wednesday.
Jadeja said following
confirmation of their identities by Jharkhand police, prima facie it was ruled
out that they were the suspected 10 militants who had entered Gujarat to carry
out a 26/11-like attack. Bhuj police said all nine were also arrested by Arnala
police of Palgarh district in September 2015 in connection with ATM theft.
“One group had arrived
in Bhuj on February 29 and another on March 3. They also had been to tourist
places like Mandvi beach and had done camel riding for recreation. We are doing
investigation if they were involved in any of the ATM thefts reported in the
state,” police said.
While the border
states continue to be on alert on the basis of Janjua’s input, intelligence
agencies believe that in case a terror attack were to happen, the Pakistani
government could deny its complicity and cite the fact that it had already
alerted Indian authorities.
