Terrorism-related Incidents in Maharashtra IN 2012

Terrorism-related Incidents in Maharashtra IN 2012- TILL AUGUST 2012
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/database/maharashtra_Incidents.htm
August 17: Special MCOCA court framed charges against 21 persons in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case. The court rejected the prosecution's plea to defer framing of charges till the Maharashtra ATS filed a charge sheet against Abu Jundal alias Zabiuddin Ansari.

• Bombay HC cancelled bail that had been granted to 2003 Mumbai triple blasts accused Dr Wahid Abdul Shaikh.
• August 16: Initial investigation shows role of SIMI in the violence at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Security agencies have pinpointed SIMI operative Saquib Nachan to be the mastermind of the attack.
  CCCI probe into the SMSs and the uploaded morphed pictures circulated among the minority community which led to provocation at Azad Maidan Mumbai on August 11 has so far not found any IP to suggest that it had originated from Pakistan.
  IB is investigating the matter of two unknown Para gliders, who were detected circling over Pune in June after it was informed by the IAF.
• August 14: The special MCOCA court remanded Abu Jundal alias Zabiuddin Ansari in Maharashtra ATS custody till August 24 in connection with the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.
  The Nagpur Court sentenced two persons to 10 year jail and fine of INR 10,000 in FICN case. The court convicted Mohammed Farukh and Farida Begum, residents of West Bengal, under section 489(B) and 489(C) read with section 34 of IPC.
• August 13: Maharashtra ATS to question Abu Jundal in connection with the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.
  Fearing protests from locals due to Ramzan fast and Id celebrations, the NIA, has postponed raids in Aurangabad and Mumbai.
• August 12: Abu Jundal made a confessional statement before a magistrate giving a deep insight into Pakistan-based LeT terror group's role in the 26/11 attacks.
• August 9: Ajmal Amir Kasab identified Abu Jundal as one of the key conspirators of the Mumbai terror attacks.
• August 8: Abu Jundal told the Maharashtra ATS that two senior ISI officers LeT - Colonel Mohammad and Lt Colonel Asad- are exclusively in charge of the Indian operatives of the LeT.
  Abu Jundal told to Mumbai Police's crime branch that he was not the first choice to help coordinate the attacks.
• August 7: Abu Jundal has told the investigator 26/11 was allegedly a part of LeT plan to adopt a 'more aggressive' anti-India approach.
• August 6: The Mumbai Crime Branch has sought Maharashtra Home Department permission for custodial interrogation of lone arrested 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, LeT along with Abu Jundal. The Police said that there were contradictions in the versions of the confession made by them.
• August 1: Four low-intensity blasts rocked the busy Junglee Maharaj Road in Pune injuring one person. Two other bombs were defused by the Anti-Terror Squad.
• July 27: Jundal's first meeting with an LeT operative, whose name was not disclosed, happened in Tawa hotel in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) in 2005, after which, he participated in 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.
  Five persons were arrested along with FICN of INR 188, 000 from a lodge in Amravati District of Maharastra.
• July 26: Investigators claim Abu Jundal has revealed names of a few persons from his hometown (Beed in Maharashtra) who he was in touch with when he stayed in Pakistan from 2006 to 2012.
  The Mumbai crime branch is also questioning Jundal to find out who is the other Indian citizen who knew about the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai. LeT operative David Coleman Headley had told his interrogators about this person from Maharashtra.
• July 23: Two persons were arrested and FICN worth over INR 5, 00,000 in Maharashtra.
  Jundal claimed that LeT wanted to carry out a major suicide attack on the Nasik Police academy. The LeT had set up its modules in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and south India.
• July 22: Further, the interrogation of Abu Jundal, by the Delhi Police's special cell and central agencies has shown that the 26/11 suspects operated out of several countries- Pakistan, the US, Italy, Spain and Thailand, France and Sri Lanka.
• July 21: Mumbai Police arrested Abu Jundal, and produced him before the chief metropolitan magistrate's court in south Mumbai, which remanded him in Police custody till July 31, 2012.
• July 14: Police arrested two persons, identified as Mohammad Malik (23) and his brother Khalil (20), who were circulating FICNs in Gol Bazar (market) area of Chandrapur District (Maharashtra).
  Three persons were arrested for allegedly trying to print FICN at Rajwada Road in Aheri of Gadchiroli District.
• July 13: A year after the 13/7 blasts, the probe led by Maharashtra's ATS has gone transnational as the key wanted accused are believed to be operating from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Nepal and Pakistan.
• July 9: FICNs are flooding the Pune (Maharashtra) market in a big way, leading to concern. As a result, banks are worst affected by FICN circulation.
  The Maharashtra Government told the State Assembly, that several places of religious importance in the state are on the terror hit-list.
• July 3: Two persons, identified as Damu Mahadu Kadale and Khandu Pite were arrested and FICNs with the face value of INR 1.82 lakh recovered from their possession at Peint near Hutatma Smarak in Nashik, Maharashtra.
• June 13: India has asked the US to provide statements of 13 people associated with LeT terrorist David Coleman Headley and his accomplice in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case Tahawwur Hussain Rana as they could be potential witnesses, during the Indo-US strategic dialogue. The US in return told India that they would consider New Delhi's request but conveyed that one or two people are currently based in Canada.
• June 16: The trial of seven Pakistani suspects, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, charged with involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks was adjourned for a second consecutive week as no judge has been appointed to hear the case.
• June 15: Investigations into the 13/7 Mumbai triple blasts revealed that one of the wanted accused and IM operative Muzaffar Kola, had been using two SIM cards which were obtained under fake identity.
  The officers of the Maharashtra ATS interrogating IM operative Mohammed Kafeel Ahmed, in connection with 13/7 triple blasts in the city, have said that he is the key conduit in what is believed to be a well-spread out hawala network that channels underworld money to the terror group.
• June 13: India has requested the US to provide it access to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks accused and LeT operatives David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
• June 11: MCOCA court postponed the recording of the statements of the accused in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts after the defence moved an application seeking to record the testimonies of two witnesses.
  Maharashtra ATS probing the case had arrested 13 accused claiming they were members of the banned organisation SIMI and LeT.
• June 10: Jury of Chicago Court, acquitted Rana on June 10, 2011 of involvement in the 26/11 attack, it found him guilty of helping LeT for an aborted plot to bomb a Danish newspaper for publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in 2005. Rana's trial featured testimony from the government's star witness, his friend, David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to his role in the Mumbai attack and the Denmark plot.
• June 6: The Maharashtra ATS claimed that it was aware of the whereabouts of a July 13, 2011 (13/7) accused, Muzaffar Kola, listed as wanted in the case charge sheet. He has not been arrested so far owing to his medical condition. Muzzafar Kola, owner of the Dubai based company Muzzafar Kola Enterprises, was in Bhatkal, Maharashtra, even as the ATS charge sheet listed him as a wanted accused.
• June 5: The ATS chargesheet in the 13/7 case also mentions that the DNA of a woman was found in Byculla's Habib Mansion, the building where the suspected bombers stayed.
  The CRS said ISI is also regularly linked to anti-India terrorist groups, including the LeT, responsible for the 26/11 attack on Mumbai.
• June 4: The Maharashtra ATS has claimed that the funds received by IM operative Yasin Bhatkal from Dubai through the hawala channel were used to send recruits to Pakistan to receive terror training. Investigations revealed that suspected Pakistani bomber Waqqas (Wakas Shaikh) had helped his co-accused steal two Activa scooters from Grant Road and V P Road areas a day before the explosions.
• May 28: Terror suspects and IM operatives Naquee Ahmed and Nadeem Shaikh were arrested for stealing two motorcycles from VP Road and Dongri areas of Mumbai days before the 13/7 bomb blasts.
  A magisterial court in Pune (Maharashtra), granted permission to the state ATS to conduct an identification parade of IM operative Qateel Siddiqui (27) of Bihar. Siddiqui has been accused for attempting to plant a bomb near the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple in Pune on February 13, 2010.
  Mohammed Kafeel Ansari, suspected to be the close associate of elusive IM 'chief' Yasin Bhatkal and also the accused in 13/7 serial blasts case, was remanded in Maharashtra ATS custody till June 8 by a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai.
  Judicial magistrate first class A.G. Santani, granted permission to Maharashtra ATS to conceal names of witnesses in the case in which IM operative Qateel Siddiqui (27) of Bihar was arrested for allegedly making a bid to plant a bomb near the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati temple in Pune on February 13, 2010.
  Among the 641 witnesses listed by the ATS in the July 13, 2011 (13/7) triple blasts case chargesheet, at least eight men who were working in the Sakhli Street Byculla workshop of accused Naquee Ahmed's brother Rafi Ahmed at that time claim to have spotted the two accused, Naquee and Nadeem Akhtar, meet and interact with one Imran and two others in February 2011. The Police believe that Imran is an alias used by the main conspirator of the blasts, IM leader, Yasin Bhatkal.
  Another witness included in the chargesheet is a key maker who allegedly made duplicate keys for two bikes. The ATS has said that of the four bikes stolen by Naquee and Nadeem, two were used to plant bombs at Opera House and Zaveri Bazaar. The police have recovered the duplicate keys. In his statement, the key maker said that two young men came to his shop in the first week of July 2011 and one of them asked him to make duplicate keys on urgent basis for a Honda Activa and a Unicorn Motorbike.
• May 27: The link between underworld and IM has surfaced with Maharashtra ATS naming Dubai-based Muzaffar Kola, an associate of jailed 1993 serial blasts accused Mustaffa Dossa, as a wanted accused in 13/7 blasts case.
  ATS sources said, "Kola has been associated with Dossa and his absconding brother Mohammed Dossa. On Kola's instructions, hawala [illegal money transfer] operator Kanwar Pathrija (arrested in the 13/7 blasts case) allegedly handed over Rs. ten lakh [INR 1 million] to one Shivanand, who later turned out to be Yasin Bhatkal". "With this link, we now cannot rule out underworld help in this terror attack," the source added.
• May 25: The chargesheet filed by the ATS before a special Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act Court on May 25, states that the serial bombings that hit Mumbai (Maharashtra) on July 13, 2012 (13/7) were planned and coordinated by IM leaders from Pakistan.
  The nearly 4,800-pages-long document names at least 10 accused and says that the objectives behind the bombings at Opera House, Zaveri Bazar and Dadar were to "create instability in the state" and to "weaken the country's economy".
  The chargesheet says that "the entire criminal conspiracy was hatched by Riyaz Bhatkal and Yasin Bhatkal of IM. The banned terrorist group, it adds, was created by Pakistani spy agency ISI "to spread terror in this country". Riyaz and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal "operate from Pakistan with the help of their associates based in India by imparting instructions to them" via electronic means through Yasin. Riyaz and Yasin are two of the wanted accused named in the chargesheet. Among the remaining wanted accused are two suspected Pakistani nationals identified as Waqqas Ibrahim Shaikh and Danish alias Tabrez, Shaikh Mohammadd Tahsin Akhtar, currently believed to be on the run in Andhra Pradesh; and an Indian-born hawala (illegal money transfer) operator based in Dubai named Muzzafar Kola.
  Apart from the above mentioned named, the 10 names in the chargesheet also include Naquee Ahmed, Nadeem Shaikh, Kanwar Pathrija and Haroon Naik who are facing trial under the stringent MCOCA, the IPC and other laws.
• May 16: Police are likely to issue red-corner notices against the two Pakistani suspected bombers, Waqqas and Tabrez, in the July 13, 2011, bombings in Mumbai.
  Mumbai Police have stated that the sanctions imposed by the US on "drug traffickers" Tiger Memon and Chhota Shakeel, both close aides of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, have come too late.
• May 14: UMHA has confirmed that Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Gujarat are on the terror radar of Pakistan-based groups.
• May 13: Investigations into the arrest of Pune time-bomb planter, IM operative, Qateel Siddqiui, revealed that he had shared a cab with three other persons while travelling to Mumbai from Pune with the bomb.
• May 11: Maharashtra ATS has claimed that alleged IM operative Mohammed Qateel Mohammed Jafar Siddiqui has confessed that he conducted a recce of the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple in Pune and showed the places he visited, and the spot where he unsuccessfully tried to place a bomb.
• May 9: Talking about several terror alerts, related to Mumbai, raised by the Central Intelligence Agencies periodically, an unnamed Policeman said they are non-actionable.
  Maharashtra ATS officers found out that Yasin Bhatkal, who heads IM, invested INR 1.4 million in the under-construction Poonam Paradise in Nalla Sopara (east) of Thane District in Maharashtra in 2010.
• May 8: Central Intelligence agencies have warned the Mumbai Police that five suspected LeT militants have sneaked into the city and are plotting to attack several vital installations, including petroleum establishments, possibly through the sea route.
• May 3: A Pune court granted eight days' Police custody to IM militant Mohammad Quateel alias Mohammad Jafir Siddiqui.
  UMHA has asked the Maharashtra Police to hold joint training sessions for personnel on how to investigate terror attacks.
  Interrogation of the arrested 13/7 bomb blasts suspects has revealed that the two Pakistanis militants who are involved in the attacks along with IM militant, Yasin Bhatkal, had been using stolen cellphones to mislead the Police.
• May 2: The Maharashtra ATS has found traces of RDX along with other explosives in a flat in Habib building at Byculla in Mumbai, where IM militants suspected to have been involved in the July 13, 2011 Mumbai blasts (also known as 13/7) stayed.
  Commenting on the issue of delay in implementing the death sentence of 26/11 Mumbai (Maharashtra) attacks convict Ajmal Kasab, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, said in Parliament that Kasab needs a fair trial.
• May 1: Delhi court gave the ATS of Pune (Maharashtra) the custody remand of IM militant Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui (27) to interrogate him for his alleged role in the German Bakery bomb blast (February 13, 2010) in Pune.
• April 30: A Saudi national, identified as Bandar Mohammed Ureb (32), captain of a merchant vessel, was arrested for possessing FICNs with the face value of INR 45,000 in Mumbai (Maharashtra).
• April 25: Airport customs officials of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai (Maharashtra) arrested a naval captain of Saudi Arabia, identified as Mohammed Bandar (31) for smuggling in FICNs with a face value of INR 45,000.
  Officials said Bandar had obtained it from an authorized money dealer in Saudi Arabia. He was caught when he tried to pass off it as genuine at a pre-paid taxi counter. The incident has brought to focus the issue of granting bail to those arrested under the Customs Act and Central Excise Act.
  The Rajya Sabha, has been informed in a written reply by Minister of State for Home, Jitendra Singh that 458 lives were lost in terror attacks in Mumbai (Maharashtra) since 2000.
• April 23: Two persons, identified as Jitendra Gupta and Imesh Yadav were arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch with FICN amounting to INR 4.854 million from Siddharth Nagar transit camp area in Goregaon (West) in Mumbai. The duo was planning to set up a full-fledged fake currency printing factory in Mumbai. The Police recovered fake notes of INR 100, INR 500 and INR 1,000 denominations, a high-quality printer, sparkle pens and bundles of blank papers from their hideout.
  According to sources, the two used to act as carriers and had visited several countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Korea. Yadav has good command over Thai and Korean languages.
  A Police officer said that in Uttar Pradesh, the two were successful in circulating FICN, but the demand of notes was very less. "They had come to Mumbai only a fortnight ago to study the market and were planning to set up a fake note printing unit. Notes printed by them were almost like genuine ones, and to make it more genuine they would smartly use sparkles on the security thread of the notes," said the officer.
• April 20: India requested the US to extradite Tahawwur Rana and grant it access for a second time to Pakistani-American LeT operative David Coleman Headley, both of them jailed in America on terror charges.
• April 18: The investigation into the 13/7 Mumbai triple blast case revealed that the two Pakistani bombers staying in Byculla's Habib Apartments used as many as 18 SIM cards and six handsets.
• April 13: A special MCOCA court granted permission to the NIA to question the four accused, arrested for their alleged role in the Mumbai blasts of July 13, 2011, in connection with the blast outside Delhi High Court in September, 2011.
• April 9: Nadeem Sheikh, one of the accused in the 13/7 Mumbai serial blasts made an application before the MCOCA court, seeking a retraction of his confession.
• April 2: Pune Police has served notices on cadres of the SIMI in Maharashtra, following a notification issued by the UAPA at New Delhi declaring SIMI as an unlawful association.
• March 30: Maharashtra Home Minister R. R. Patil told the State Assembly that terrorists had conducted a trial run at the Shrimant Dagadusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple in Pune three days prior to the German Bakery blast (February 13, 2010).
• March 29: Maharashtra ATS has identified the man who planted the explosive at Dadar (Mumbai) on July 13, 2011, which killed one person and injured 10. The suspect is on the run in south India, sources said.
• March 27: Maharashtra ATS arrested two suspected SIMI cadres from Chikhli area of Buldhana District. The ATS team arrested Akil Ahmad Mohm Yusuf Khilji and Mohd Zafar Hussain, both residents of Khandwa, MP.
  The terror module was attempting to set up bases in Aurangabad, Jalna and Buldhana Districts of Maharashtra and recruit people in the State. They were also planning to assassinate some prominent Hindu leaders in Maharashtra.
  The arrest of 2008 Ahmadabad serial blasts accused Mohammad Abrar Babu Khan by ATS on March 26 is being viewed as a significant development by Central intelligence agencies with officials claiming that the dreaded terrorist was controlling the entire network of IM and banned SIMI in western and central India.
• March 26: A suspected SIMI cadre was killed while two of his accomplices - one of whom is said to be involved in the July 26, 2008, serial blasts in Ahmadabad - were arrested after a gun battle with the ATS in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The slain suspect has been identified as Khalil Akhil Khilji while those arrested are Abrar Babukhan alias Munna and Mohammad Shaker Hussain.
• March 25: Dawood Ibrahim (1993 Mumbai serial blasts accused) has at least 20 fake passports, 8 of which were issued in Mumbai, Chhota Rajan has 8, and Chhota Shakeel 6 and the simplicity with which fake passports can be acquired is a major reason for gangsters' ability to slink across borders and elude the Police.
• March 24: A fresh twist appeared in the September 8, 2006 Malegaon blast investigations as the NIA, begins to suspect that Hindu fundamentalists might have used Muslim hands to execute the blast.
• March 23: Maharashtra ATS claimed to have information on two persons suspected to have played a role in the triple blasts in Mumbai on July 13 last year. The two suspects were identified around the second week of March.
• March 22: Maharashtra ATS told the court that one of the four arrested - Nadeem Shaikh - for 13/7 blasts had confessed and that his statement has been recorded before a magistrate. The four arrested - Naquee Ahmed, Nadeem Shaikh, Kanwar Pathrija and Haroon Naik - were produced before the Mazgaon metropolitan court and sent to judicial custody till April 4.
• March 19: Portuguese Constitution Court has stayed a judicial order cancelling extradition of gangster and key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Abu Salem to India, the Union Government informed the Supreme Court in Delhi.
• March 9: Two militants of IM, Haroon Naik and hawala operator Kanwar Nain Wazeer Chand Patrija who were behind bars for Opera House (Mumbai) blast (13/7) case were remanded in ATS custody by a local court in connection with the Dadar explosion that took place on the same day.
• March 2: Mazgaon Court in Mumbai extended the Police custody of Haroon Naik and Kanwal Nain Patrija, alleged operatives of IM, arrested for their role in the 13/7 bomb blasts, till 9^th March.
• February 27: NIA formally arrested Lokesh Sharma, already in judicial custody in connection with the Samjhauta train bombing case, for his alleged role in the 2008 Malegaon blast. Sharma was produced before the special MCOCA court in Mumbai where he was remanded to NIA custody till March 9.
• February 24: Maharashtra ATS, which is probing the July 13 Mumbai triple blasts case obtained the custody of Haroon Naik and Kanwar Pathrija till March 2 in connection with the blast at Zaveri Bazaar.
• February 17: A Pakistani judicial commission will visit India on March 12 as part of the probe into the 2008 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
• February 16: A diary, which sailed with Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists from Karachi (Pakistan) and provided them with crucial sea-coordinates to reach Mumbai on November 26, 2008 along with locations to attack, landed on the table of two Supreme Court judges who will take the final call on award of death sentence of Kasab.
• February 10: Eight years after two blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai killed 52 people; the Bombay High Court upheld the death sentence awarded to the three accused LeT militants.
• February 7: ATS has found out that Haroon Naik, arrested on February 1 for 13/7 Mumbai blasts, had met LeT operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and was present at an "inspirational" lecture by slain al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan just a month before the 9/11 attack.
• February 1: Haroon Rashid Naik (33), a Mumbra (a Mumbai suburb) resident, was arrested by the ATS in the 13/7 triple blasts case. He is the fourth man to be arrested in the case for facilitating the hawala racket from where Mumbai blasts were funded.
• January 31: Maharashtra ATS and Delhi Police's Special Cell have arrested a Delhi-based hawala operator, Kanwar Nain Pathrija, in Delhi for arranging funds for the 13/7 Mumbai blasts.
• January 26: prior to executing the 13/7 blasts in Mumbai, IM operatives Yasin Bhatkal and Riyaz Bhatkal bargained extensively on the amount to be spent to execute the terror attack. Though Yasin demanded INR 1.7 million to bomb three places in Mumbai, he was paid only INR 1.2 million by IM leaders, investigations have revealed.
  Maharashtra ATS revealed that the hawala money to fund the attacks was routed through UAE.
• January 25: The Maharashtra ATS made its ninth arrest in a fraudulent SIM card case.
• January 24: Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria said that the IM first recruited youths from Cheetah Camp in Trombay (Maharashtra), then Kondwa in Pune (Maharashtra), then Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and now Darbhanga in Bihar.
  The investigations into the bogus SIM cards racket led the Police to the accused in the July 13, 2011 Mumbai triple blast case (also known as 13/7).
  The ATS recovered 400 documents provided by Tikole through which prepaid SIM cards were bought by the IM module members.
  Eight persons have been arrested by the ATS in the 13/7 case so far.
• January 23: Maharashtra ATS claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the triple Mumbai blasts July 13, 2011 that claimed 27 lives, with the arrest of two of the accused hailing from Bihar.
  Yasin Bhatkal, the mastermind of the 13/7 Mumbai blasts, might have succeeded in evading the Police, but he remains in India, officials of the Maharashtra.
• January 19: counter-terrorism agencies have narrowed down on the terror-financing module that is operating out of New Delhi, and is believed to have aided IM operatives in executing the July 13 triple blasts in Mumbai and the Delhi blast. Sources in counter-terrorism agencies said that they had identified the recipient of the money illegally channeled from Dubai to a hawala operator in Delhi.
• January 17: Two Pakistanis - Tavrez and Bakas - and two Indian nationals - IM operative Yasin Bhatkal and an unidentified man - had executed the blasts at Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Kabutarkhana in Dadar on July 13, 2011