Quoting co-accused Usman Sheikh Qureshi, who led the banned Hindustani Majlis outfit after the arrest of thirteen of its top leaders, including then chief Malik, Basheerpuri claimed that ‘Indian Mujahideen will conduct serial blasts in Ahmedabad as revenge for Gujarat riots’ during his interrogations by the Gujarat police. ‘He asked Qayyum bhai as to what this Indian Mujahideen is. He said that some of them are old hard-core elements from the banned outfit and some new young people have also joined.’

Even as they picked up pieces from the ruins left by the deadly blasts, Shekhar and his bosses in the CTC sorely missed having any information on how the terror masterminds functioned. They missed having a project in place like Operation Trojan Horse, which had succeeded in embedding counter-terror Indian operatives deep into the LeT’s South Asian framework to thwart, pre-empt and defang its ceaseless terror plots.

60. THE NIGHT OF 26/11

60

THE NIGHT OF 26/11

When the explosions rocked India from 2005 to 2008, for which there were no clear leads on the identities of the perpetrators, Shekhar grilled Atharv about the blasts in the Mecca mosque and Malegaon, but he claimed ignorance about who could have executed them.

‘Atharv, have you heard anything at all that can provide us with a lead on who was behind the Malegaon and Mecca mosque blasts?’

‘No, sir, I have no idea who was responsible for them, and it seems the LeT may also be clueless.’

‘Well, that’s a pity,’ said Shekhar.

‘But there is something else that I have come across, thanks to a stray query by Abu-Muzammil. He asked me if I could get Indian prepaid SIM cards for a group of thirty to thirty-five fidayeen. I told him I would try. But he never broached the topic again. Once, when I raised it, he snubbed me and did not give me a straight answer. He never raised the subject again.’

Shekhar was immediately on alert. ‘Indian prepaid SIM cards for Pakistani fidayeen? It seems they are planning a big terror attack in India outside Kashmir. Any idea where?’

‘No idea, sir.’

‘Thanks, Atharv. Be alert and on the move. Keep your eyes and ears open.’

‘Yes, sir.’

After hanging up, Shekhar was immersed in deep thought. Convinced that the LeT was planning something very big, he went to meet the CTC chief to apprise him of LeT’s search for Indian SIM cards for a large number of Pakistani fidayeen.

Months later, members of Abhinav Bharat came under the scanner of investigating agencies for their alleged involvement in bomb blasts at Hyderabad in May 2007 (Mecca mosque, nine people dead), Ajmer in October 2007 (the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, three people dead) and Malegaon in September 2008 (opposite a goods transport firm office, four people dead).

A few weeks later, the opportunity to act on the intelligence provided by Atharv presented itself before the CTC.