BOMBAY, 3 August 2006 — Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has now alleged that nonresident Indians (NRIs) based in Saudi Arabia transferred more than SR2 million to Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to carry out the Bombay bombings.
“We are collecting data from all sources of surveillance of NRIs based in Saudi Arabia, who have donated more than four million Indian rupees to terrorist outfits to help them execute the blasts on suburban trains that killed and injured hundreds of innocent people,” a police official said adding that a major part of the funds was kept apart six months ago during the planning of the terrorist act.
An ATS source said that investigations into the blasts and the 10 alleged terrorists so far arrested have revealed that NRIs in Saudi Arabia had funded the so-called Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force to plant two explosions at the Gateway of India and Mumbadevi in 2003 in which 70 people lost their lives.
R.R. Patil, the deputy chief minister and home minister of Maharashtra state, confirmed that terrorists had targeted Bombay’s Gujarati community. Patil said, “according to police statistics, 77 percent of the victims who died in the blasts were Gujaratis. The terrorists had done their homework well and also planned the blasts with complete finesse.”
He added, “the terrorists who planted the bombs on the suburban trains knew that the majority of the commuters in the first class compartments in the suburban trains were Gujaratis, residing in suburbs of Mahim, Malad, Bandra, Andheri, Vile Parle, Kandivili and Borivili. It was with this view that the terrorists planned their operation.”
Meanwhile, Patil’s problems are not over as dissent against his handling of law and order in the state gains momentum within the Nationalist Congress Party. Party leaders are presently demanding his removal as home minister.
Sources in the NCP say that the party president and Federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is also unhappy with Patil and wishes to sack him and replace him with his nephew Ajit Pawar, the state irrigation minister.
In addition to the NCP, senior IPS officials in the state are also demanding Patil’s resignation. Angry outbursts against Patil are visible in the senior IPS ranks, as he has unwisely reshuffled eight inspector generals of police, 16 deputy inspector generals of police, and 12 superintendents of police three weeks ago.
Speaking to Arab News, some IPS officials alleged that Patil had discriminated against them by favoring certain officers for certain posts while posting other in insignificant posts.
“There are some of Patil’s lackeys who have refused point blank to take places that are inconvenient to them. Is this the transparency that Patil speaks of ushering into the police force?” asked an irritated IPS officer.
Patil came under severe attack from IPS officers for discriminating against officers. This took place when he first of all announced that IPS officer Shamshuddin Mohinudeen Sayed, joint commissioner of police in Nagpur, would be given a new role as commissioner of police in New Bombay. When officers were reshuffled last week, Sayed’s name was not listed.
