MUMBAI: Rahil Abdul Rahman Sheikh, identified by India's covert services as the principal organiser of the July 11 serial bombings, may be holed up in one of the several Kathmandu safe houses operated by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Intelligence sources said Sheikh, along with Zulfikar Fayyaz Qazi and Zabiuddin Ansari, set up escape plans weeks before the bombings, in anticipation of what is being described as the largest counter-terrorism sweep since the 2001 attack on Parliament House. Police have named the men as key figures in Lashkar cells operating out of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi — networks whose relationship with the bombings was first reported in this newspaper. Sheikh, a resident of Mumbai's Grant Road area, handled communication between these cells and the Lashkar's Pakistan-based commander for operations targeting India, Azam Cheema — the man who would have authorised and overseen the serial bombings. Sheikh was also responsible for funnelling Lashkar recruits, raised mainly from the ranks of the Students Islamic Movement of India, to training camps in Pakistan.
Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Squad identified Sheikh, along with Qazi, as the architects of the attempted bombing of an Ahmedabad-Mumbai train on February 19. A malfunctioning timer — and a corrupt railway guard, who pilfered the suitcase from the train in Ahmedabad before it commenced its return journey to Mumbai — prevented the loss of dozens of lives in the attack, the first in Gujarat where RDX was used.