Police sources say the way in which operation was executed was amateurish

'Local boys executed Jama Masjid attack'

Police sources say the way in which operation was executed was amateurish

The US may be giving up on outsourcing, but the phenomenon is being actively pursued by terror groups.

Investigations into Sunday's Jama Masjid attack have led the Delhi Police to believe that the Indian Mujahideen might have hired local boys to carry out the operation.

"Investigations till now have hinted at the involvement of men from western Uttar Pradesh in the incident. The planning was meticulous for the Jama Masjid attack, but the execution was not up to the mark," sources said.

They pointed out that the way in which the attackers executed the operation was amateurish, though the plan was not "bad", they said.

"The attackers couldn't make a bomb and they were not even able to shoot properly. One more fact that corroborates the involvement of the local goons is the way they were able to disappear in the narrow streets of old Delhi. No outsiders could have done it," a senior police official pointed out.

Highly-placed sources in the Delhi Police told MiD DAY that the big fishes - Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Indian Mujahideen - are outsourcing operations to local elements to escape close scrutiny by security forces and intelligence outfits.

"Also, even if they are caught it doesn't do much damage as such elements know nothing beyond the specific operation. It also brings down the cost to some extent," they said.

Sources said they suspect that local men were made scapegoats by terrorist modules active in the city by performing systematic mindwash on the subjects using footages of incidents like Godhra and Babri Masjid demolition.

The e-mail, sent by Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the Jama Masjid attack, was traced to Mumbai but no arrests have been made.

Local goons
According to sources, a top team is now hunting for the local baddies and history sheeters in the walled city. They have been given notice to appear in the police station. About 12 police stations, including Jama Masjid, Kotwali, Paharganj, Hauz Qazi etc, have interrogated around 50-60 people having criminal backgrounds. The people, who are not responding to the notice and some who are absconding, are on the radar of the cops.
Investigations into the call details have also revealed that the attackers were in constant touch with some people in cities in western UP, indicating yet again the hand of IM.

Bombshell
Probe into the September 2008 serial blasts in Delhi revealed that the Indian Mujahideen were trained in making strong crude bombs through easily available substances. They planted six bombs in different areas of Delhi and only two bombs were recovered unexploded. Later on September 19 suspected IM men were gunned down in Batla House encounter. But these blasts clearly indicated that these men were thoroughly trained in making bombs and even using firearms in Pakistan.

The Indian Mujahideen is also allegedly involved in the Ahmedabad and Jaipur blasts. The police have nabbed some of the accused of the blasts but the big shots are still absconding.

TARGET PRACTICE

The actual targets of Sunday's shootout near New Delhi's Jama Masjid were not foreign tourists, but the police, investigators, the media and onlookers.

According to investigators piecing together the link between the random firing that injured two Taiwanese nationals and the pressure cooker bomb that went off inside a car more than an hour later, the motive behind both was to create mayhem in Delhi.

SIM TRAIL

Mumbai Police and the Anti-Terrorist Squad are trying to find the person who procured a mobile SIM card -- on the basis of forged papers in the name of a woman -- that was used by the banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) to send an e-mail claiming responsibility for the Jama Masjid attack in Delhi.

A Tata mobile number was used to send an e-mail to a foreign television network by a person from the IM owning up the terror attacks at the Jama Masjid in which two Taiwanese tourists were injured Sunday.

Police teams rushed to an address in the western suburbs but found no trace of the person from the details given in the forged papers.

Late Monday evening, Delhi Police confirmed that the internet protocol address from which the IM email was sent was traced to a Mumbai computer.

Mumbai Police Crime Branch and the ATS are now jointly working to find out the person who sent the e-mail, but so far there is no progress in the effort.

As in the previous instance,u00a0 when two years ago the Indian Mujahideen had hacked the unsecured wifi internet connection of an American national, Kenneth Haywood, minutes before the Ahmedabad terror attacks of July 26, 2008, which left 50 dead, investigators apprehend that a similar modus operandi may have been used even this time.

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