முஸ்லீம் பயங்கரவாதிகளை மும்பை போலீஸ் பிடிக்க உதவிய முஸ்லீம்கள்

ஒரு சில இணைய இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகளை போல அல்லாமல், இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகளை பிடிக்க போலீஸுக்கு உதவிய முஸ்லீம்களை பாராட்டுவோம்.

Muslims aided undercover cops
9 Oct 2008, 0000 hrs IST, Mateen Hafeez & Nitasha Natu,TNN


MUMBAI: Crime branch officials, tracking the terror modules in Mumbai, were sheltered by Muslim families in their homes for a few days. The undercov
er officers took the families into confidence and used their houses as bases to observe the movements of the terror suspects before zeroing in on them.

"They played a very important role by supporting us in our operation,'' joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said. Several terror suspects who were picked up from Mumbai and the neighbouring districts stayed in Muslim-dominated areas. For the police, it was a very difficult job moving around all the time there without being noticed.

The police identified some families through their contacts in Kurla, Cheetah Camp, and Mumbra, where the officers were provided shelter by Muslim families. "We stayed there for two days, watched the movements of the suspect and kept passing on the information to the crime branch headquarters where senior officers worked on it,'' a police officer said. The basic idea was to confirm the identities of the suspects before picking them up.

In one instance, the police claimed that an officer shot pictures of a suspect with his mobile phone and sent it to the headquarters where it was shown to one of the arrested accused. "He confirmed the identity, after which the team arrested the suspect,'' he said.

According to Maria, this mainly worked to their advantage leading to the first set of arrests on September 23. One of those arrested included key IM operative Sadiq Shaikh. "It was Ramzan and the Muslim-dominated areas were milling with people. The officers were continously interacting with us over the phone, and we verified the information to ensure that we picked up the right people,'' he said.

In Mangalore, too, where crime branch officials arrested four persons subsequently with the help of local police, they received tremendous support from the locals. "Two teams reached Mangalore on September 30 searching for a house, which was painted pink inside and was adjacent to a mosque. "Mohammed Ali, who harboured some of the terrorists, lived in this house. There are 16 mosques and locating this house was next to impossible. Moreover, we did not want to alert the suspects,'' a police officer said.

The officers even donned local attire and posed as if they had returned from Gulf. "We even carried huge suitcases and had airline stickers pasted on them to convince the locals,'' he said. According to a police officer, after gaining confidence of some of them, they disclosed their identities. "They helped us identify Ali's house,'' a police officer said.




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