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2011-07-25 India-Pakistan
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Bangladesh link to Mumbai blasts tests ties
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DHAKA - The suspected mastermind of the serial bomb blasts that last week killed at least 19 people in Mumbai and injured over 130 more is in Bangladesh, according to Indian media reports.
Abdullah Khan, of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), probably orchestrated the blasts and his movements had been tracked over the past few months, the Times of India quoted investigators as saying in a July 17 report.
If proven true, that report and others like it may stifle the progress that India and Bangladesh have made in improving ties over the past two years.
Given Bangladesh's track record at fighting terrorism since 2009, a coordinated manhunt between the two countries to track down Khan, who goes by the aliases of Khurram Khaiyam and Nata, could turn out be a blessing in disguise for India's developing neighbor.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was one of the first leaders to offer condolences to her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, in a letter expressing her "deep shock and concern over the death of innocents" in three consecutive explosions that took place during the Indian financial capital's rush hour at the crowded Zaveri Bazar at 6:54pm, the Opera House a minute later and at the suburb of Dadar at 7:04pm local time on July 13.
Soon after the explosions, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the timing of the blasts showed a coordination that made it "quite obvious that some terror element is involved in the attack".
Mumbai police said they suspected the bombs to be the work of the IM, although Chidambaram declined to speculate who was behind them. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan denied that there had been any intelligence failure.
Abdullah Khan is now "operating the IM module which is assigned to maintain liaison with the Bangladesh-based Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI) and, in a joint venture, has recruited a few new cadres for their outfit", according to the Times of India article. "Investigators said even six months ago, he [Khan] was stationed in Nepal and used to shuttle between Bangladesh and Pakistan."
On July 18, rediff.com reported that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India arrested Riazul Sarkar from Bihar in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts. The report quoted intelligence bureau sources as saying Sarkar "may have links with HuJi in Bangladesh", although it added that the agency didn't have many details about the alleged link.
The report also mentioned that the National Investigation Agency, India's top unit to combat terror, was homing in on IM members across India and was already questioning a suspected operative known as Haroon, who is in a Kolkata jail after being arrested in June.
An Intelligence Bureau (IB) source referred to a change of tactics by the IM after the terror strike on multiple targets, including five-star hotels, by 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, left 166 people dead and many injured.
"After 26/11, with Pakistan under the scanner for their role in sheltering handlers and perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage, the IM had started conducting training camps in Bangladesh," the source told the Deccan Chronicle in a July 18 report.
IM terrorists find it easier to penetrate India from Bangladesh through West Bengal with support from the HuJI, the source said in the report.
The source also speculated that since one of the IM founders, Amir Raza, is from Kolkata, his awareness of "the topography of West Bengal" makes it more convenient for him to coordinate movements along the border.
LeT members had planned a simultaneous attack with the 26/11 atrocities in Mumbai, in the shape of a strike on the US Embassy and Indian High Commission in Bangladesh. However, as two of the three terrorists who had ordered the attack, India-born US citizen David Coleman Headley and Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, had been arrested in Chicago in October 2008, and the third, Pakistani-born Abdur Rahman Sayeed was arrested in Pakistan around the first week of November, Bangladesh detectives foiled the plot. Mufti Harun Izahar and two associates from Chittagong were arrested, along with three Pakistani LeT members.
In November 2009, Indian authorities also arrested two Indian nationals and LeT members - T Nasir and Sharfaraz - who crossed the border into India from Bangladesh. The pair were part of the 15-member squad that failed to attack the US Embassy and Indian mission in Dhaka, the authorities said at the time.
In a bid to combat such cross-border terrorism, organized crime and the drug trade, during Hasina's visit to India in January 2010, Bangladesh and India decided to form a coordination committee comprising representatives of law-enforcing agencies and the two countries' intelligence wings to "deal with international terrorism and drug smuggling, investigation and completion of trial in such crimes". The agreement has yet to be ratified by either country. But the continued movement of terrorists across the border makes it highly likely that it will be signed off during a planned visit to Bangladesh by Manmohan in September.
The signing of the initial agreement and the arrest of numerous high-profile terrorists was behind the United States in August 2010 lauding Bangladesh's efforts "to deny domestic and transnational terrorists safe haven and targeting opportunities in Bangladesh". Bangladesh and India now have to join hands to apprehend suspected IM terrorists. At stake are bilateral ties between the neighbors, whose cooperation framework has the potential to improve livelihoods significantly and save lives in both countries. 
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Posted by 2011-07-25 00:00||
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