Responding to the charges in connection with the terrorist infiltration post Godhra riots, domestic spy agency Intelligence Bureau said that it had, on April 22, 2004, shared with all the states genuine intelligence inputs regarding the movement of Lashkar-e-Taiba modules with all the states.
With the new revelation, the IB has rubbished the claims that its senior officer was part of the conspiracy to kill Ishrat Jahan and three others in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
The intelligence agency maintained that subsequent to the April 2004 input, it had alerted various units to scan the activities of suspects and their handlers. There was reliable intelligence that LeT had asked its modules to target BJP leader L K Advani, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and VHP leader Praveen Togadia.
The agency said their jobs ended with sharing information and police forces across the country did not need to formally inform the IB about their actions.
The agency had earlier informed the CBI, which was investigating the Ishrat case, that the then Joint Director, SIB, Ahmadabad, Rajinder Kumar had also verbally communicated to the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner about the infiltration of two Pakistani-Punjabi-speaking suspects that came under the agency’s radar.
The suspects had fake aliases and were moving in Gujarat with a handler from Pune.
The IB also countered the allegations that had cast a shadow on the input forwarded to Ahmedabad Police clarifying that 26/11 plotter David Coleman Headley had admitted that Ishrat was a female suicide bomber of a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation. Ishrat was recruited by Muzzammil, an LeT commander, tasked to carry out terror attacks in India. Headley, a US national of Pak origin, was arrested by the FBI in September 2009 for terror activities.
The FBI disclosure was later communicated to the IB, which had forwarded the communication to the CBI earlier in February this year. The FBI communication said: “When Zaki introduced Muzzammil to Headley, he talked about Muzzammil’s accomplishments. Zaki told Headley about a female suicide bomber named Ishrat recruited by Muzzammil. Jahan was killed by Indian police during the attack.”
In fact, the IB told the CBI that Mehmood Basra, a Pak national and LeT terrorist who was earlier arrested by the J&K Police, gave startling disclosures about Babar alias Abdul Adnan, an LeT fidayeen sent by Muzzammill with an Indian VIP’s hit list. Basra was picked by Muzzammil to provide logistics support to Babar.