January 28, 2002

'5'

    A Breakthrough has been achieved in the investigation of the Kolkata shoot-out case, an attack on the American Centre, which took place on the January 22 and in which 4 policemen lost their lives and 18 persons were injured.

    Intelligence Agencies and Police of various States had been alerted and were keeping a close vigil for clues and leads on this case. Pin-pointed intelligence ultimately became available about the presence of a terrorist module, and its hide-out in Hazaribagh town, being run by Dubai-based Farhan Malik @ Aftab Ansari who had claimed responsibility for the incident. It also became known that Farhan Malik operated this terrorist module in conjunction with Harkat-ul-Jihad Islamie (HUJI) and Lakshar-e-Toiba (LeT), the two pak based terrorist tanzeems.

    Accordingly, the Jharkhand Police raided a terrorist hide-out in Hazaribagh at day-break today and in the resultant shoot-out two terrorists, both Pakistani nationals, namely, Zahid and Salim were seriously injured. Zahid admitted that he was a resident of Khanewala, Distt. Multan, Pakistan and had opened fire at the policemen guarding the American Centre. An AK-47 rifle, believed to have been used in the Kolkata firing, has been recovered from the hide-out in Hazaribagh. Further investigations are being carried out but there is hardly and doubt now about the role of Pakistani nationals and Pak-based terrorist tanzeems, in this case.

    Significantly, a new trend is emerging in terms of the direct involvement of Pakistani nationals in terrorist, espionage and subversive activities in India. Apart from the fact that all the five terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 were Pakistanis, there have been at least five cases of subversion and espionage in recent months in which Pakistani nationals were arrested in India and they, during interrogation, themselves admitted that they were Pakistanis and had been sent to India for sabotage and terrorism at the behest of Pak ISI.