Conspiracy was hatched four years before the 11/7 Mumbai train blasts

The conspiracy behind the 2006 serial train blasts was hatched four years before they took place at Bahawalpur in Pakistan by wanted accused and main conspirator Azam Chima Through his sources in Mumbai Bihar and on the Nepal border Chima brainwashed Indians and funded several trips to Pakistan for their trainingThis AntiTerrorism Squad team had managed to crack the 117 blasts case which culminated in the conviction of 12 od the 13 arrested accused yesterday Maharashtra did not have an ATS until 2004 just two years before the blasts K P Raghuvanshi centre in blue shirt was the first Maharashtra ATS chief and he headed the unit during the blasts probe PicSayed Sameer AbediAn ATS officer said that even after all this Chima did not trust Indians to carry out the bombings alone and sent Pakistani terrorists along with them in the trains It was decided that each group will have two people mdash one Indian and one PakistaniAccording to the ATS team which investigated the case the conspiracy to stage the highintensity blasts in Mumbai started four years before they took place following the 2002 Gujarat riots The Gujarat riots were perfectly used by the LashkareTaiba to instigate young Indian Muslims and involve them in terror activitiesA police officer said ldquoPhotos from the riots were used to instigate Indians This was done by accused Faizal Ataur Rehman Sheikh He earlier worked as a bodyguard of Chima in Pakistan He made several trips between India and Pakistanrdquo Faisal indoctrinated several more peopleA few years before the blasts several youths were sent to Pakistan Money was sent to Faisal through hawala channels by Chima Through another plot another accused Kamal Ahmed Mohammad Vakil Ansari a resident of Madhubani district in Bihar came in contact with ChimaBahawalpur compound in Pakistan was the main base of terrorists where all the planning and training was done A school for terrorists it was there that under Chima youths were trained in identifying handling firing and dismantling weapons They were brainwashed through hate speeches against the Republic of India and were taught to make plant and finally test bombsThey were trained to use modern communication equipment like satellite phones for efficiently and effectively executing their plans The blueprint of the train bombings was prepared at the Bahawalpur compound designed by ISI and LeTIn the four years before the blasts over 50 youths from Mumbai Mira Road Mumbra etc were sent for training to the Bahawalpur compound A police officer said ldquoInitially Faisal refused to execute the plan however Chima insisted as he was nurturing Faisal so that he could be used in the future to execute other plans against Indiardquo A few of the terrorists were sent to Pakistan via Iran while a few others went via Dubai Bangladesh and NepalrdquoRecceIn May 2006 Faisal came to India and with a few other accused who have been convicted started studying the easy targets They recced several places An officer said ldquoSeveral targets such as the Siddhivinayak Temple Mahalaxmi Temple NSE etc were seen however all the places had high securityIn May they decided to target Mumbairsquos local trains Faisal told his commander Chima in Pakistan that the trains were the softest target Several trips from Churchgate to Virar were made by the convictsrdquo Pakistanis brought in Former ATS Chief K P Raghuvanshi said ldquoSecurity was quite low and in the evening peak hours the blasts could carry maximum casualties However after the trains were finalised Chima did not trust Faisal He doubted him and could not let Indians carry out the bombings alone He therefore decided to send Pakistani terrorists to Mumbai It was decided that seven groups with at least one Indian and one Pakistani in each group would carry out the blastsrdquoIn the last week of June and by July 3 2006 all the Pakistani terrorists had arrived in Mumbai Six came from Bangladesh they carried 20kg of RDX while three came from Kutch and three from Nepal Ammonium nitrate was bought in Mumbai Pressure cookers were bought from two shops in Santacruz The Pakistani terrorists stayed in Bandra and Mira RoadA police officer said ldquoOn July 5 all the accused decided to execute the plan on it on July 11 Bombs were made at convict Sheikh Mohammad Ali Alam Sheikhrsquos house in Govandi and brought to the Bandra house of Faisalrdquo Raghuvanshi said ldquoThe time table was very accurate They kept the bags on the luggage racks and got down r One of the blasts took place in Matunga which is just after Dadar but they were confident in timingsrdquoAnother officer said ldquoAll the terrorists were clearly instructed not to carry mobile phones However one of the convicts Naved Hussain Khan carried a phone which he later gave to his friend in Bandra which was presented as evidence in call detail records in court All terrorists were instructed to leave the city immediately Pakistanis left through Nepal and Bangladeshrdquo