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Bihar's dark secret: Is the state becoming a safe hideout for most wanted terrorists?

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Amitabh Srivastava
Amitabh SrivastavaOct 21, 2017 | 13:05

Bihar's dark secret: Is the state becoming a safe hideout for most wanted terrorists?

When Anurag Basu, a cyber cafe owner in Bihar’s Gaya district, chased and caught Tauseef Khan, the prime suspect in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, on September 13, he hardly thought about the consequences. But now, more than a month later, though Anurag is happy to have contributed his bit for the country’s security, the circumstances have left them a bit disillusioned.

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Tauseef Khan alias Atik Khan, an accused in the Ahmedabad blast that killed 56 people and injured over 200, had gone to Anurag’s café to send emails. A week before his arrest, Tauseef had started frequenting Anurag’s cyber cafe in Gaya’s Rajendra Ashram locality.

He would stay long hours there and send emails, without producing his identity papers that the cyber café owner demanded from him. As many as 35 terror-related cases are pending against Tauseef, a resident of Juhapura in Ahmedabad.

The same story was repeated on September 13, and when the suspect once again did not produce his identity documents, the cafe owner caught him, leading to his subsequent arrest. A search, later on, yielded documents that proved his real identity.

Now, more than a month after helping the cops arrest the terror suspect, Anurag is facing financial constraints with few people visiting his café, as they fear the terrorists might organise a revenge attack. Before helping the cops arrest the terror suspect, Anurag used to earn between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000 monthly, but he has earned less than Rs 5,000 from his café since nabbing the terrorist.

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The arrest of Tauseef Khan has also revealed the distance terrorist organisations are willing to travel to secure their hardcore resources. It was similar to a witness protection programme — one that we see in movies — only that it was honed to perfection by the terrorists. Tauseef Khan was moved 1,600 km away from the bomb sites by his terrorist bosses to Bihar’s Gaya district where a new identity and a new job waited for him.

So Tauseef, a bachelor in engineering and communication from a Maharashtra based engineering college, became Mohammad Atique in Gaya, a quiet and affable Mathematics teacher at Mumtaz Public School in Karnouni village. He inconspicuously mixed with the population and remained off the radar of the security agencies for nine years. The cops even failed to notice him when he disappeared for a year immediately after the 2013 bombing at Gaya Mahabodhi temple.

Tauseef’s modus operandi to hide behind a pseudo identity uncannily resembles Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal’s strategy. Bhatkal too spent many months in Madhubani and Darbhanga districts of Bihar between 2008 and 2009, posing as a homeopathy doctor named Imran. That was also the time period when Tauseef had set his foot in Gaya.

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Preliminary interrogations have revealed that Tauseef was close to Bhatkal, inarguably the most infamous one who used Bihar as a hideout. Bhatkal was arrested from Raxaul near the India-Nepal border in East Champaran district, around 200 km north of Patna, in 2013.

Tauseef’s arrest on September 13 this year has once again brought Bihar in sharp focus as a possible safe hideout for terrorists. Beginning 2011, various security agencies, including Delhi Police and National Investigation Agency have picked more than a dozen terror operatives hiding in or hailing from Bihar.

Tauseef, besides being a planner of the Gujarat conspiracy, was also among the operatives who planted the explosives in Gujarat. “He was physically present to ensure proper placement of bombs at the spot,” an interrogator said. Notes seized from Tauseef have “coded expressions in English on the type of arms, geographical routes and ways to dodge security agencies.” The cops have also recovered pen drives, computer hard disks, and papers from Tauseef.

Bihar principal home secretary Amir Subhani told Mail Today that Tauseef’s arrest must not be viewed as Bihar turning into a terrorists’ haven. “These people are trying to hide anywhere they can, but the security agencies are hot on their heels everywhere. Bihar does not seem to be a preferential hideout,” Subhani said.

“Tauseef was engaged in forming a new module (sleeper cell) in Bihar. He is believed to have indoctrinated several youths, including girls from remote villages under the Dobhi block in Gaya district,” said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

However, Tauseef’s arrest, being seen as a huge breakthrough and very crucial for the security agencies, was, in fact, a windfall and not the result of any meticulous police operation. Tauseef may well have stayed on with his pseudo identity had an alert cyber cafe owner in Gaya not informed the cops about his suspicious activities.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: October 22, 2017 | 23:15
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