Warnings Galore

The US embassy warning of possible terror attacks by foreign terroristsespecially those from Al-Qaeda, in major Indian cities might have beenunexpected for the general public, but not for a junior police officer ofKashmir, who had sent a
similar warning to his bosses in Kashmir, way back in June. However, ironically,top brass of Kashmir police did not take the warning seriously and did not findit worth to be shared with their counterparts in New Delhi and other states. Andworst, the author of the report, who earlier had warned of a political upheavalin Kashmir in the name of a sex scandal, is presently languishing in prison, forhis alleged involvement in the prostitution racket, about which he was the firstperson to inform his
bosses, much before the racket exploded.

Mohammad Yusuf, a Deputy Superintendent of Police in the counterintelligence wing of the state intelligence, had warned the state governmenton June 14th about the possibility of attacks in Mumbai, and later serial blastsleft nearly 200 people dead and hundreds wounded on July 11th. While thegovernment ignored crucial intelligence inputs, the police official lost histable on June 30th when he was arrested by CBI for his alleged involvement inthe infamous 'Srinagar sex scandal'.

The copy of the said report is with Outlook.

"Reportedly Syed Salah-ud-din, who is presently camping at Karachi,Pakistan, has attended number of secret meetings with several top commanders ofLeT and JeM like Prof Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed and Azhar Masood wherein it has beendecided to infiltrate large number of trained terrorists into the Valley andalso to other parts of the country. Confirmed reports reveal that some 400-500elite terrorists have been pushed upto LoC wherefrom they will be sneaked intothe Valley. There are some 200 foreign mercenaries with this group. It is alsolearnt that Pak ISI has planned to target Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and NewDelhi in the near future", records a confidential report, No: CIK/City/CB/06/566dated June 14, 2006, sent by Yusuf to his superiors.

However, for reasons, better known to the top brass of state intelligence,the crucial report was ignored and same was filed as a "routineinformation". Mir has been in CBI custody and judicial remand after he wasarrested from CID Headquarters on June 30th. Mir is facing charges of sexuallyexploiting a woman at his official residence and making an attempt to protecttwo persons by sending cash worth Rs 50,000 and a Pashmina shawl through thesame woman to a television news channel, which had interviewed the woman.

In his report, Mir had informed the CID Headquarters that patrons of militantgroups in Pakistan had decided to escalate violence in Kashmir and other Indianstates after realising that New Delhi was not going to give any concessions toIslamabad with regard to Kashmir issue. He had also predicted massiveinfiltration of militants into Jammu & Kashmir in the months of June andJuly.

Nobody in senior echelons of police is inclined to comment why the state governmentfailed to pass on vital information regarding possible blasts to governments ofMaharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi. On July 11th seven blasts occurred in differenttrains in Mumbai in a sequence killing 184 people and wounding nearly a thousandmore. On the same day, militants caused serial grenade blasts in Srinagar cityin which 8 persons got killed and 43 others were left injured. That series ofattacks was clearly targeted at tourists resulting in mass exodus of touristsand cancellation of tour bookings on a large scale.