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The Mumbai techie who became India’s Osama Bin Laden, arrested

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Qureshi, co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen, was arrested by the Delhi Police Saturday. He had been underground since masterminding the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts.

New Delhi: One of India’s most wanted terrorists, Abdul Subhan Qureshi, who co-founded Indian Mujahideen (IM) and allegedly masterminded the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts, was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell Saturday night after a brief encounter.

Qureshi, 46, was underground for over a decade and was suspected to be living in Nepal and working as an English teacher. He had allegedly come to Delhi’s Ghazipur to meet an associate. According to the police, the meeting was not to plan or carry out a terror attack but to revive operations of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) by holding training camps.

Wanted in several terror cases

Qureshi surfaced on the most wanted list after he sent an email titled “The battle has begun and the dust will never settled down”, signed in the name of ‘Al Arabi’ from IM, owning up the serial bombings in Ahmadabad on 26 July 2008 in which 56 people were killed and 200 injured.

Qureshi — known to have a knack for altering his appearance and for his aliases (‘India’s bin Laden’, ‘techie bomber’, ‘Al Arabi’, ‘Qasim’ and ‘Taufiq’) — had successfully managed to evade investigators since.

Qureshi, who started as a staunch Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activist in 1998, left his job as an IT engineer in 2001 while he was working on projects for Bharat Petroleum and Wipro. He apparently wanted to pursue ‘spiritual and religious matters’ and ended up pursuing terrorism.

In 2007-2008, he allegedly held training camps to give lectures to radicalised youths for “jihad in India”, and how to wage a war against the nation. He is also wanted by the National Investigation Agency in connection with terror attack cases in Delhi, Bengaluru and the 2006 Mumbai local train bombings.

“He took the initiative to mastermind the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts and provided all the logistics. An extremely good orator, he became the master recruiter to indoctrinate youths across India,” a source said.

Chief instructor

Qureshi rose up the ranks soon after the 2008 blasts and was given the responsibility to “plan for IM’s future”. Many camps to train the youths to fight jihad at the time were organised by him.

“Qureshi held several camps in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Gujarat to train its cadres to wage jihad against the Indian establishment. They were trained in swimming, rock climbing, map reading, jungle survival, how to make petrol bombs, and even how to mislead investigators if arrested. He was one of the organisers of these camps and the chief instructor,” said P.S. Kushwaha, DCP, Special Cell.

He also conducted camps at Thangalpara and Wagamon in Kerala, where he taught youth rope climbing, firing, riding bikes in difficult terrain, and making bombs.

“During these camps, he gave lectures by way of audio-visual presentations, explaining the need for jihad,” an investigator said.

A case regarding Qureshi organising these camps is being investigated by the NIA.

According to sources, Qureshi was one of the key organisers of SIMI’s last conference, held in 2001, where he was seen seated next to the organisation’s chief, Safdar Nagori.

A sincere student & software engineer

Qureshi’s passed the senior secondary examination from Antonio DeSouza High School, Byculla, Mumbai, in 1988, securing 77 per cent marks. In 1992, he began studying at the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in Navi Mumbai, and in 1995, he obtained a diploma in industrial electronics.

He then went for a special course in software maintenance at CMS Institute in Marol. By 1998, Qureshi had started working at a multinational company, and was involved in several important projects. It was around this time he began visiting SIMI camps in his neighbourhood out of curiosity but eventually got drawn to the Bhatkal brothers and their extremist ideology.

“Both his parents were educated. His sisters too have a master’s degree in arts, and none of them seem to be influenced by radical ideology,” an investigator said.

“During the investigation, we found that he was a hard-working professional who was handling major responsibilities, but in 2001, he just abruptly sent his resignation to the company.”

In 1999, he attended several SIMI conferences, including the one addressed by the head of the Palestinian Hamas, Sheikh Yasin, and the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Husain Ahmad, after which he surfaced in 2008 in the Ahmadabad blasts case.

“After 2008, he went to Nepal, where he maintained a low profile and often organised camps. In 2015, he then went to Saudi Arabia on a Nepalese passport, and stayed there for two years, arranging for logistics. He then again went back to Nepal, where he was working as an English teacher,” a source said.

Plan to revive IM

According to the police, Qureshi was now planning to revive IM and its operations in India, for which he had come to Delhi to meet an accomplice.

“With most IM terrorists either in jail or dead, Qureshi now wanted to revive the terror group. He, along with his accomplice, was planning new recruitments and logistical support in order to resurface. We are yet to ascertain more details on this,” Kushwaha said.

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