Lashkar planned training centres in South India

Washington, Dec. 5: The secret US state department cable on Lashkar-e-Tayabba planning to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, is based on various intelligence inputs received by it, the source of which is not mentioned in the cable.

The cable notes that the network of Shafiq Khafa, a Lashkar leader, is “striving to stand up two teams in southern India that rely on the support of LeT members based in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal”.

Although specific details of planned Lashkar-e-Tayabba attacks remain unknown, late-May 2009 intelligence indicates that Khafa’s cells were engaged in surveillance activities of potential targets, likely in southern India.

“Early-May reporting further suggests Kerala or Tamil Nadu may be used as a base of operations following the establishment of a facilitation team in Sri Lanka, with the estimated time of completion for setting up the facilitation route and camps to be two to three months,” the cable said.

It is understood that the specific intelligence information was passed on to India.

“Separate tearline indicates, & Pakistan-based Shafiq Khafa prepared in mid-June with India-based associate SJ for possible operations in India.

“Khafa was looking for information on possible training sites in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala,” the cable said.

The cable says that Lashkar-e-Tayabba ’s Shafiq Khafa was preparing for operations in India including the assassination of Mr Modi.

“Tearline reports, & Hussein, an India-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT) member, continued operational planning on three tasks in early June.

“The tasks were associated with a possible operation against the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, the establishment of a training camp, and unspecified work involving a car,” the cable said.

Gujarat Congress accuses Modi of phone tapping

Gujarat Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil on Monday alleged chief minister Narendra Modi used to get phones of politicians, including those from BJP and Opposition, tapped, a charge rejected by the ruling party.

The Leader of Opposition in assembly distributed to media a copy of what he claimed the register of a senior IPS officer in support of his charge of telephone tapping by Mr Modi. The register belonged to ex-additional DGP R.B. Sreekumar.

The state BJP, however, reacted strongly to Gohil's allegation, saying the Congress leader was "out of his mind" and was levelling "baseless" charges against Mr Modi.

State BJP Vice-President Purshottam Rupala, in a statement, said it was the Centre, which controls telecom companies, that was tapping phones of the Gujarat government.

Mr Gohil said according to the register, which Mr Sreekumar had maintained when we was in charge of state IB, Mr Modi had asked for phone call records of slain former minister Haren Pandya. Sreekumar was heading the state IB during 2002 riots.

He further said Mr Modi had also asked state IB to tap phone of Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela in April 2002, when he was the state party chief.

Cop feels Ishrat was murdered

Ahmedabad, Jan. 28: A Gujarat-cadre police officer who is a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed to probe the encounter killing of Mumbai college-girl Ishrat Jahan has said in an affidavit filed before a division bench of the Gujarat high court that all early evidence in the case points to the 19-year-old girl and her three friends being shot dead in a fake encounter.

The Ishrat encounter, like other encounters in Gujarat, had a similar pattern. Ishrat was believed to have come on a suicide mission to kill the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi.

The Gujarat police intercepted her plans and killed her. This encounter was carried out by D.G. Vanzara, a Gujarat police encounter specialist who has over a dozen encounters to his credit. All these encounters involved “terrorists” aiming to kill Mr Modi. Vanzara is currently in Sabarmati jail for his role in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing. But, a year-and-a-half before D.G. Vanzara killed Sohrabuddin, he had slain Ishrat and her three friends.