Cover Story

OTHER STORIES RELATED TO COVER Networked For Mayhem Bridging the Gulf Interview: P.C. Sharma

They were the most unlikely partners in crime. Aftab Ansari and Omar Sheikh had nothing in common-not where they came from, what they wanted, even where they wanted to go. Separated not just by 300 metres between their cells in Tihar Jail but also motive and ideology, nothing could have linked Ansari and Sheikh-except the burning desire to abandon the ordinary life.

Cover Story

AFTAB ANSARI ALIASES: Aftab Ahmed, Hero, Amit, Mohammad Farhan Mallick, Surinder Singh Jat NATIONALITY: Indian AGE: 31 years EDUCATION: Graduate of law and journalism from the BHU AMBITION: Wanted to be an underworld don bigger than Dawood Ibrahim, big enough to extort money by merely announcing who he was, not by actually kidnapping targets. MODUS OPERANDI: Kidnapped wealthy businessmen with the help of terrorists trained in Pakistan, extracted huge ransom money and channelled some of it to the jehadis for strikes on the WTC, Parliament and the USIS in Kolkata. CRIME RECORD: Wanted for kidnapping for ransom, inciting riots, assaulting policemen, attempt to murder in eight cases in India. Collected Rs 53 crore ransom in 2001. AHMED OMAR SAEED SHEIKH ALIASES: Rohit Sharma, Aamir, Khalid, Amir Sohail, Arvindam J, Umar NATIONALITY: British AGE: 29 years EDUCATION: Nightingale School (primary), Forest School (secondary), drop-out 2nd year BSc, London School of Economics AMBITION: To turn Bosnia and Kashmir into Islamic states and fight as a mujahid wherever Muslims were "persecuted". MODUS OPERANDI: Kidnapped foreigners to secure the release of imprisoned jehadis. In 1994, abducted three British and one American to negotiate the release of Maulana Masood Azhar. More recently involved in kidnapping of US reporter Daniel Pearl. CRIME RECORD: Wanted in India for the USIS attack and for his role in the IC 814 hijacking. Prime accused in Pakistan in the Pearl abduction.

The arrests of the two men by Indian and Pakistani investigators within four days of each other exposed the nexus between the forces of the underworld and the warriors of jehad. The arrests also established the complicity of Pakistani intelligence agencies in their joint venture, and their links with the Al Qaida and the Taliban.

Their fingerprints are to be found in every major act of terrorism carried out on the subcontinent in the past two years: the hijacking of the IC 814, the attack on the Indian Parliament, the shoot-out at the American Center in Kolkata and the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. One man calls himself a jehadi, the other a don-now it is difficult to tell where crime ends and jehad begins.

Evil intent has made comrades of contrary men. Ansari, from Lallapura, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, decided at 21 years of age that a journalism degree was not the route to high life, and chose crime instead. Sheikh, from London's Wanstead, son of a fashion store owner, was a high-school prefect from an expensive private school who found religion the most tedious of all subjects. In 1992, when enrolled at the London School of Economics, he saw a 45-minute documentary on Bosnia titled Destruction of a Nation. The film moved him to sign up with an aid agency heading for Bosnia. When he returned, he was transformed and fired by the Arab and Pakistani ''warriors'' he had met in the Balkans. He left home and travelled to Afghanistan to join the jehad.

Two years later he found himself in the Tihar Jail, being tried for the 1994 kidnapping of an American and three British tourists in India. The kidnapping had been staged to negotiate the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, general secretary of the Harkat-ul-Ansar terrorist group, and founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Ansari was in prison at the time for minor offences: violating the Arms Act and a kidnapping-for-ransom case in Luxa, Varanasi. Ansari jumped bail in 1999 and fled to Dubai on a passport acquired in the name of Mohammad Farhan Mallick.

A few months later, Sheikh was released in exchange for the hostages of the ic 814 and was received by the Taliban at the Kandahar airport. Since his release, along with Azhar, Sheikh has kept a very low profile despite allegedly being in the inner circle of JeM's decision-makers. He was rarely seen in public and until September 11 is said to have spent most of his time in Afghanistan, training militants. It is probably here that he cultivated contacts with elements in Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network.

Ansari, who owned a sprawling bungalow in Borivali, Mumbai, renewed his contact with Sheikh after moving to Dubai. Interrogation reports of Ansari's key lieutenant Asif Reza Khan reveal the two men travelled to Karachi and were taken to Rawalpindi by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives where they spent 12 days. During this time, Khan said, they met Sheikh. He was told how leaders of different militant groups in Pakistan were interested in using Ansari's network in India-of which Khan was the head-for jehadi activities.

According to police files, Khan stated, "Aftab confirmed to me that leaders of different militant outfits in Pakistan were trying to use his network for the purpose of jehad whereas he (Ansari) was trying to use the militants' networks for underworld operations. He disclosed he was making effort (sic) to get supplied arms/ammunitions (sic) from Pakistan for underworld activists in India.''

Sheikh told the two Indians that he was a Jaish operative working in Afghan training camps and enjoying the patronage of Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders. Sheikh also said he moved between Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Bahawalpur. Sheikh and Ansari suggested that Khan visit the training camps and infrastructure under the command of the Taliban regime. It became clear to Khan that Sheikh had the support of terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to Khan's confession, Sheikh talked about attacking symbols of Indian democracy like Parliament and the Red Fort. He said that trained cadres
of the JeM, under Azhar and Sheikh, and the let, under the leadership of Azam Cheema, were willing to cross over to India, and strike.

The deal was simple: the don would identify sources of funding and provide hideouts; the jehadi would send trained terrorists, arms and explosives to help carry out the operations. Kidnapping and extortion was seen as the simplest way of raising money. The ransom paid by Kolkata businessman Partha Roy Burman, and Rajkot-based jeweller Bhaskar Parekh totalled Rs 7 crore, but was only the tip of the pile. According to intelligence sources, Ansari and Khan working with businessmen-turned-criminals like Raju Unadkat-also extradited to India with Ansari-collected close to Rs 60 crore in ransom and extortion payouts from terrified businessmen. Among these businessmen was Niranjan Shah.