| Bonding with the Terror Merchants |
Aftab Ansari and Omar Sheikh met inside Delhi's Tihar Jail. The two
bonded well and decided to work in tandem once they were out of jail.
Also in jail at the time were Pakistani national Maulana Azhar Masood
and Kolkata's Asif Reza Khan who faced charges under TADA. Sheikh
had come to India to secure Azhar's release after kidnapping foreign
tourists, a mission that bombed. Once out of Tihar, they ganged up
for their Indian operations.
|
|
| Empire of
Extortion and Terror |
Ansari and Sheikh joined forces to
run a kidnapping empire in India from Pakistan
and Dubai. The ransom was often funnelled back to India for terrorist
strikes. |
|
1 VARANASI
While in India Ansari kidnapped a coal merchant in August 1999.
Ransom:
Rs 2.4 cr.
|
2 MUMBAI
Niranjan Shah, relative of filmstar Govinda, abducted in April 2000.
Ransom:
Rs 20 cr. |
3 RAJKOT
B. Parekh, businessman, abducted in November 2000. Ransom:
Rs 3 cr. |
4 KOLKATA
Partha Roy Burman,
shoe baron,
abducted in July 2001.
Ransom: Rs 3.7 cr.
|
| Operating Base |
|
SWIFT ACQUISITION: Within a span of one year, Ansari managed
to buy plush flats in Dubai. One of them at Nehal Building, Al Ghusais,
helped him keep a low profile, yet run his extortion empire.
|
LAHORE DEN: After leaving the UK in 1993 on a jehadi mission,
Sheikh spent much of his time at an ancestral house in Lahore
(below). He was arrested from here in connection with the Daniel
Pearl case.
|
| Grabbing the World's
Attention |
| As
a duo, Ansari and Sheikh knew only too well the art of jumping into
limelight. Yet, in the end, neither was smart enough to evade the
law. |
 January
23, 2002: Wall Street Journalreporter in Mumbai Daniel Pearl (
right) was kidnapped by Sheikh. An unapologetic Sheikh told a Karachi
court last week that Pearl was dead. Pakistan quickly refuted the
claim. The timing of the kidnapping became a big embarrassment for
President General Pervez Musharraf who visited the US last week. |
| January 22, 2002:
Ansari called a Kolkata newspaper to claim responsibility for the
early morning attack on the USIS that left five policemen dead. |
 September
11, 2001: About Rs 50 lakh of the Rs 3.7 cr ransom money collected
from the kidnapping of shoe baron Burman was sent to WTC attacker
Mohammad Atta by Sheikh. |
 October
2001: The CBI intercepted a truck laden with arms at Santhalpur
in Gujarat. According to those arrested, the consignment, which included
three AK-56 rifles and 524
cartridges, six AK-56 rifle magazines,10 electronic detonators, six
remote timers and 14 kg RDX were sent to India by Sheikh for terrorist
strikes and kidnappings in 2002. |
| Evil Designs |
  January
2002: Ansari's men had plans to abduct cricketer Sachin Tendulkar,
kill scientist Abdul Kalam and attack nuclear plants ( right). But
they were thwarted after Ansari's e-mails were intercepted. |
| Reza Khan's Confessions |
 Khan,
before he died, was questioned by police of several states,
the CBI and IB. His confessions detail the Ansari-Sheikh nexus. |
| Asif Reza Khan, Ansari's
key lieutenant, was killed in Rajkot in December last year. He was
a trained Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant and his evidence is crucial.
|
| "The Burman kidnapping
money was sent to Omar. Some of it went to Atta for 9/11 attack." |
|
"I went to Rawalpindi in February 2001 and met
Ansari, Omar. They spoke of attack on Parliament."
|
|
"We wanted to sell information on filmstar Govinda's
co-brother to the FBI in Kathmandu.
It didn't work out."
|
"I've met top Lashkar,
Jaish leaders in Karachi many times. I wanted to settle the Taliban
fighters in Kolkata."
|
CURRENT
ISSUE FEB 25, 2002
){kind=link}