How LeT change of mind saved IIT-K

A LAST minute change in plan stopped terrorists from inflicting a big blow on the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur on January 26 — the date Lashkar-e-Taiyaba (LeT) had set for the attack in an e-mailed threat to the institute.

In fact, LeT operatives had stocked enough quantity of C4 explosive so closely to the institute that the terror act could have been executed at any given point of time.

Luckily, the planners after giving a second thought decided against it and diverted the explosive to Mumbai through Kushinagar Express on January 29 last.

No wonder, the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) recovered the C4 and maps of various vital installations from the Pak-trained militant Mushiruddin Siddiqui and his Nepali comrade Mansoor Ansari soon after they came out of the train at Lok Manya Tilak Railway Station on January 31.

According to well-placed intelligence sources, the C4 explosive to Mushiruddin was made available at Kanpur Central by a sleeping agent, who now stands identified.

For the last one week, ATS Mumbai is working in tandem with the State police to track down the agent, believed to be in hiding somewhere near the IIT Kanpur.

“The attack was inevitable, it’s just sheer luck that it was put on the backburner,” says a source involved in the investigation. This task was to be carried out by Mushiruddin Siddiqui who has spent nearly a year in hiding near Roshan Nagar where a blast, last year, had left 13 dead.

Mushiruddin, sources say, is a bomb-making specialist, trained in Pakistan for 22 days before being launched in India from Bangladesh to assist in some spectacular actions. Originally a resident of Thane district, Mushiruddin had stayed in Kanpur for a long period to escape Mumbai police that had once arrested him in connection with the serial blasts.

Mushiruddin told interrogators IIT Kanpur definitely topped the hit-list of LeT and its operatives were working for an IISc Bangalore type of terror attack for long.

The operational blueprint was well in place and even the explosive was stockpiled within a radius of just two km of the IIT-K, precisely between Rawatpur and Kalyanpur localities.

All was set when local operatives were asked to abort the mission and hand over the C4 to Mushiruddin travelling to Mumbai through Kushinagar Express.

The instructions had come just two days after the IIT-K had received a second e-mail threatening a militant strike.  The decision not to attack the IIT-K, sources said, was influenced by a feeling among LeT top planners that any strike at this juncture could expose a number of its sleeping cells.

“This man is loaded with information about LeT network in cities like Kanpur, Allahabad and Lucknow,” said the source. “All the leads extended by him are being pursued in a synchronised way,” he added.

Since he has oozed out the details of his Kanpur contacts, the joint teams of ATS and UP Police are slowly zeroing in on him. The man they are looking for is in late twenties and had harboured Mushiruddin in his exile here.

Sources say the investigations are heading in the right direction and, if all goes well as planned, the city may witness the biggest terrorist module being busted.