With the advent of the War on Terror, India has become a frontline in this global battle. With the scars of Mumbai still fresh, we profile a selection of terrorists who pose the most threat to India and her security.
Hafiz Muhammed Saeed:
Considered one of India's most wanted terrorists, Hafiz Muhammed Saeed is the Amir of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, an organization widely believed to be a cover for the militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Under the reign of General Zia-ul-Haq, Haifz was appointed to the Council of Islamic Ideology, and later served as an Islamic Studies teacher at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore. As part of this position, he was sent to Saudi Arabia in the early to mid 1980's for further studies.
While in Saudi Arabia, he became allegedly became associated with Saudi sheikhs who were heavily involved in the jihad against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. This association had a profound effect on him, leading him to play an active role in supporting the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. This sowed the seeds for the establishment of his organization.
In 1987, he, along with an associate, Abdullah Azzam, founded Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, from which the feared Lashkar-e-Toiba sprung.
It is believed that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence officers played an active role in founding Lashkar-e-Toiba, with the stated aim of 'liberating' the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. It also has stated its designs on the likes of Hyderabad state and Junagadh.
Following the Mumbai train bombings in July 2006, Hafiz was finally arrested by the Pakistani government, but was later released the same day.
After the attacks on Mumbai in 2008, India submitted a formal request to the U.N. Security Council to place Saeed and the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah on the list of individuals and organizations sactioned by the U.N. for association with terrorism.
India believes that Saeed and his organization are virtually interchangeable with the LeT and that the close association between them is of "immediate concern with regards to their efforts to mobilize and orchestrate terrorist activities". Saeed has denied these charges in an interview on Pakistani television, claiming to have never been chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba.
He placed under house arrest once again, but was released when the Pakistani high court deemed his containment to be 'unconstitutional', much to India's disappointment.
Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against him, and he was placed under house arrest again, but once more the Lahore High Court released him and allowed his organization a free rein to pursue their stated agenda.
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar:
India's most wanted man, he is suspected as being the mastermind behind a number of terrorist attacks on Indian soil, including the 1993 bomb attacks in Bombay.
Having fled India following the 1993 attacks and intense pressure from both the Indian government and his erstwhile lieutenant, Chota Rajan, Dawood is believed to have set up base in Pakistan, running a criminal empire that is involved in everything from drugs trafficking, to arms smuggling, to the funding of militant Islamist groups.
Dawood is believed to be closely involved with Laksha-e-Toiba and Al Qaeda, and is said to have the support of a number of high profile Pakistani government officers, including those in the ISI.
The Indian government has continuously lobbied for his extradition from Pakistan, even approaching the United States to bring their influence to bear, but to no avail. The Pakistani government flatly denies his presence in Pakistan, despite Indian government agencies insisting they have proof.
In 2002, an Indian delegation was sent to the United States to lobby for the handover of Ibrahim from Pakistan. L.K. Advani, who led the delegation, expressed his dissatisfaction with the inaction faced, saying that they faced hurdles at every step and that it was 'not a very happy experience'.
India's worst fears were realized when Ibrahim was implicated in the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2006 and 2008. Sources claimed that he was heavily involved in planning the logistics of the attacks.
Dawood's personal wealth is estimated to be in the region of 30 billion rupees and his crime syndicate is said to have its arms all across the world, including India, Sri Lanka, the U.K., Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia. He is said to be heavily involved in obtaining information for the ISI on India, using his extensive network of contacts and sources, which are able to sniff out anything he may ask for.
Chota Rajan:
Dawood's nemesis, and successor to his title as the head of Mumbai's underworld, Chota Rajan is wanted on a number of criminal cases, including 17 murder cases and several more attempted. He is also wanted in conjunction with several cases of extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking.
Chota Rajan rose to prominence as a member of Dawood Ibrahim's gang, having previously been a petty thief and bootlegger, working for a local gang leader called Bada Rajan, explaining the origin of his nickname. Following the murder of his mentor, he took over control of the gang and began to expand operations, eventually merging with Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company.
Together with Ibrahim, Chota Rajan established an iron grip over Mumbai, having control over everything from drug trafficking to Bollywood.
Rajan's relationship with Dawood altered irreversibly after the 1993 Bombay blasts, as he was infuriated that Dawood would target the Hindu community and the country in such a way. It is speculated that growing religious differences between the two led to the split. Chota Rajan decided to form his own gang, taking a number of high level Hindu leaders with hm.
Soon, things escalated into an all out war between the two gangs, and bloody shootouts became all too frequent. It is believed that Rajan's gang was responsible for the deaths of ten members of Dawood's inner circle. With the pressure from the Indian authorities and the gang war taking its toll, both Dawood and Rajan fled the country, with Rajan moving between Thailand, Kenya, Indonesia and Malaysia.
There have been numerous assassination attempts on both sides, with Rajan narrowly escaping an attempt in Bangkok. His revenge for this attempt struck a major blow to D-Company, killing Dawood's chief finance manager and money laundering agent. It is suspected that while the Indian government does not overtly support Rajan, the intelligence agencies occasionally pass on information regarding Dawood to him, when they feel it would benefit them. Rajan has declared that he is a 'staunch Indian nationalist'.
Despite this, numerous warrants have been issued for Ranjan, but till date he has managed to evade capture, the closest coming when an Interpol warrant was issued for him in Malaysia, but wasn't executed.
Koteshwar Rao (Kishanji):
Kishanji is the leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which is considered to be responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of deaths and terrorist activities across 17 states in India.
He is the head of an estimated 22,000 combatants, who have committed more than 1,000 attacks in the last year alone.
The CPI(M)'s stated aim is to capture political power through an armed uprising based on the concepts of guerrilla warfare. This entails building up bases in remote, rural areas and transforming them into 'liberated' zones. The Maoist insurgency began in 1967 as a peasant rebellion in the village of Naxalbari, which has now spread through a large part of eastern India. In 2004, two rebel organizations, the People's War Group and Maoist Communist Centre of India merged to form the CPI(M).
There have been several efforts to capture Kishanji, most notably in October 2009, when a crack team of Indian Police Services officers had his hideout surrounded but were inexplicably ordered to stand down, due to the presence of hostages being held inside.
Mulana Masood Azhar:
The militant leader and founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed, Mulana Masood Azhar is listed as one of India's most wanted terrorists due to a long and bloody history of militant activities.
As a young man, Azhar became involved with the militant group Harkat ul-Ansar, which lead to his participation in the Soviet-Afghan war. Suffering injuries there, he was made the head of Harkat's department of motivation and editor of their newspaper mouthpieces.
From there, he rose swiftly in the organization, becoming general secretary and travelling to various locations to recruit and raise funds for the cause of Pan-Islamism.
In 1994, Azhar was arrested in Srinagar, having snuck into Kashmir to ease tensions between two feuding factions of militants. In retribution, a group known as Al -Faran kidnapped foreign tourists and demanded the release of Azhar, among other things. This was refused, and barring one escapee, the hostages were killed.
In 1999, the Indian government was forced to free him following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, lead by Mulana's brother Ibrahim. Once he was handed over, the hijackers fled into Pakistani territory despite Islamabad's earlier assertion that they would be arrested at the border. Shortly after his release, Mulana addressed a crowd of 10,000, stirring up anti-Indian and American feelings.
Following his release, Jaish-e-Mohammed carried out a string of deadly attacks against India, including an audacious attack on the Indian parliament which very nearly caused a full scale war between the two countries.
He was detained for a year by Pakistani authorities, but never formally charged, before being released by the Lahore High Court. The Pakistani authorities have since denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Healey:
The two men have been arrested by the U.S authorities in connection with a plot to attack the offices of two Danish newspapers. Further investigations revealed links with LeT and a plot for a major terror attack in India.
Indian authorities are attempting to probe into their motives, and if they'd travelled to Mumbai together to conduct reconnaissance of vital points in the city. Investigators from Indian agencies have travelled to the U.S. to interrogate the men, in order to find out more about their trips, including ones to Pakistan and their contacts with Lashker-e-Toiba leaders.
It is believed that on one of the occasions, both the men travelled on different passports. Evidence uncovered by the FBI includes videos containing inflammatory speeches by Osama Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. There is also evidence that attacks were planned against Doon School, Dehradun, Woodstock, Mussorie and the National Defence College, New Delhi.
Rana, a 48 year old Canadian citizen, living in Chicago and David Healey, a 49 year old American citizen, began plotting in late 2008, and travelled to Pakistan to meet with a leader of a group with ties to Al-Qaeda. They also communicated with Lashkar-e-Toiba leaders about their plans to attack the newspaper, the U.S. government said.
The Justice Department is continuing its investigation.
source:India Syndicate
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The Tamil Nadu government had yesterday assured of the safety of the fishermen.
