Mumbai Train Blasts: Masterminds Still At Large, Question Marks Remain!

By Animesh Roul

A year after Mumbai commuter train blasts that rocked the country’s commercial capital on July 11, 2006, the suspected masterminds –Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Azam Cheema and three other Pakistani accomplices– are still at large. The anti terrorist squad of Mumbai police has arrested 13 suspected perpetrators including Faisal Sheikh, Mohammad Ali, Naved and Sajid, so far, but failed to nail even one of them. Early claims of Pakistan hand and proofs against LeT–ISI nexus died down under Indo-Pak bilateral bonhomie. India’s National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Union Home Secretary V K Duggal aired their views publicly on the "fairly solid evidence" gathered by ATS, pointing towards Pakistan’s ISI. But later it turned out to be ‘not clinching’.

A lesser-known militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Qahar (LeQ) claimed responsibility for the blasts, indicating that some 16 LeQ militants carried out the attacks. The LeQ has been suspected to be a front organization for LeT.

The later developments such as hullabaloo over sharing evidences under the joint anti-terror mechanism between India and Pak and softening of stance by investigating agencies thereafter diluted the whole investigation process. Avid observers criticized abysmal performance of both government and investigating agencies.

One year after, a Compact Disk (CD) containing the confessions of one of the arrested suspects, Mohammad Ali, leaked to the media allegedly by some ATS official. In that CD, Ali can be seen admitting to the blast conspiracy and taking names of Faisal Sheikh and Azam cheema and their connection across the border. Plausibly, the ATS might have wanted to show that it had actually cracked the case long back, but the agency was under some kind of duress. So it opted now to show the people of India to instill confidence.

However, why and how the CD reached media is not the question (the CD leak case could bring whole ATS under scanner). The point is since the Mumbai blast, there were many more terrorist attacks including– Samjhauta train blasts and Mecca Mosque blasts, but the intelligence and security agencies have failed to fathom any of them. May be there is a lack of strong political will as far as present government is concern, which can push those (intel and security) agencies to run that needed extra mile.

Some resources:
11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings
Mumbai Blasts
For Pictures/Graphic Details

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