Pak woman spy had Modi on terror radar

ISI agents were assigned task to collect information that could be used to assassinate Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI A Pakistani woman spy and her companion nabbed from Delhi on Monday were no small operatives. They were pushed into India from ISI’s launch pads in Nepal to attack Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other terror targets in the state.

Both jihadis, Karachi-based Soofia Kanwal and her accomplice Imran, originally from Ahmedabad, were trained to trigger blasts and were being remote-controlled by their masters in Pakistan. These startling facts came to the fore during their interrogation by Special Cell sleuths.

Soofia and Imran had also been assigned to recce Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad and the Cantonment areas in Agra and Delhi, said a police officer.

They were sent to Nepal from Karachi a couple of months back and then to Gujarat. They managed to get away for some time as they had no past criminal record.

The police state that the duo, however, were not sent in to assassinate the CM. Their job was limited to organising the logistics.

“They have not revealed details of their plan to kill Modi. We are investigating whether Lashkar, Indian Mujahideen or Jaish were providing them logistics,” said a police officer. Delhi police has alerted Gujarat police about the threat to Modi.

Police are also questioning spies about the training programmes they underwent in Pakistan. Both were well-versed in techniques used by different terror organisations.

Police and Intelligence Bureau officials confirmed there has been excessive activity in Gujarat with the Lashkar and Jaish planning attacks on Modi.

A series of arrests over the past couple of weeks have reinforced the terrorists’ plans. While six operatives of the Indian Mujahideen who were picked up recently in a multi-state swoop spoke of the IM’s plans to rebuild in Gujarat, the two Pakistani spies who were arrested this week have led to a stockpile of information.

Sleuths have also stumbled upon fresh evidence on how Indian Mujahideen terrorists were keeping in touch. IM’s India chief Siddi Bappa alias Shahrukh had instructed all module members to use different SIM cards for calling each other and he himself carried several phones with different connections, said a sleuth.

In fact, Special Cell has reportedly recovered 30 SIM cards of different operators and different states from those arrested. “Indian Mujahideen members had procured all SIM cards on the basis of fake documents,” he said.

“They would keep changing numbers every two weeks to evade police. Shahrukh had reportedly given different numbers to each member. He would not talk to Ajmal on Irshad’s number or to Qateel on Farooq’s number. Members also did not know about the different numbers of different modules,” said a senior police officer. Police said the recovered SIM cards would help them track down their visits to different states.

The Special Cell has sent all arms, ammunition and explosives recovered from the terror factory at Meer Vihar for forensic tests. Officials said the explosives included RDX and nitrate-based chemicals. Police also suspect that Shahrukh may have created more bases like Meer Vihar for hiding explosives.

Cops have also found some bank accounts which were being used by arrested terrorists, which they suspect were source of transfers of money used for operations.