Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui
25 Jun, 2007

LUCKNOW: When the STF exchanged notes with the central intelligence agencies about Jalaluddin alias Babu, the self-styled area commander of Harkatul-Jihad Al-Islam (HuJI) in New Delhi, it was revealed that one Umar Sheikh’s name has also figured in the interrogation of some key 9/11 accused arrested by American security agencies in the recent past. US agencies are learnt to have informed their Indian counterparts that Mohd Atta — who planned and the executed the 9/11 bombings — was funded by one Umar Sheikh who gave him $ 1 lakh sometime before the WTC attacks.

Intelligence agencies believe that Umar Sheikh, who got a part of the Khadim case ransom money, is the same person who funded Atta.

A native of Bhilpara village in South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, Babu was around 10 and in class 3 at a local primary school when he gave up studies and was sent to Bangladesh by his parents along with some other teenagers of the village for better prospects.

In Dhaka, he was enrolled in Madarsa Jamia Rehmania where he stayed for the next 10 years before returning to Kolkata in 1998. There, he opened a roadside fruit stall on Park Street.

A few years later Babu came in contact with Mohammad Asif Raza who offered him a job of taking care of his routine chores for Rs 2,000 per month. Babu moved in with Asif, who turned out to be a HuJI commander. Asif reportedly introduced Babu to his contacts in Bangladesh, now identified as Mutaqqi and Qamar alias Nata.

Arrested HuJI man had 9/11 links?

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui
25 Jun, 2007

LUCKNOW: Interrogation of the self-styled Harkatul-Jihad al-Islam (HuJI) chief who was arrested by the Special Task Force here on Saturday has confirmed global links of the terror network operating in India.

Confessions made by Jalaluddin alias Babu confirm what has long been suspected — part of the money paid as ransom for the release of Kolkata-based Khadim Shoes vice-chairman Partho Roy Burman in July 2001 had made its way to Mohammed Atta, who crashed the first plane into New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

On the basis of this input, intelligence agencies have arrested three people in West Bengal who too played an important role in the money-transfer exercise.

Intelligence agencies have confirmed that a ransom of Rs 3.75 crore was delivered to one Asif Raza — the kingpin of the gang that kidnapped Roy Burman. The payment was made somewhere on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border. After the money reached Asif, he forwarded it to one Umar Sheikh in Bangladesh. Umar, in turn, handed over Rs 40 lakh to Mohammed Atta.

During his interrogation, Babu has confessed his involvement in the Roy Burman case and that he himself monitored the movement of the ransom across the border. Babu admitted to having received a total of Rs 50,000 as his share in the kidnapping case. Babu told cops on Saturday that the money had finally been delivered to Umar Sheikh.

Arrested Militant Confesses To International Terror Links

Source: newspostindia.com

Monday 25th of June 2007 A top militant arrested in Uttar Pradesh has told police that the ransom money he received for the 2001 kidnapping of a Kolkata-based shoe tycoon was channelled to the Al Qaeda and may have been used to fund the 9/11 US terror attack.

The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh nabbed Jalaluddin, the self-styled commander of dreaded militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad-ul Islam (HuJI), on Saturday. He is from West Bengal,

According to a top STF official, 'Jalaluddin, better known by his pseudonym - Babu Bhai - was directly involved in the kidnapping of Khadim Shoes vice chairman Partho Roy Burman in July 2001. The business magnate was compelled to shell out a hefty ransom that eventually found its way to the Al Qaeda.'

The STF, a crack group of Uttar Pradesh police, has reason to believe that a large chunk of the ransom money collected through kidnappings carried out in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh was used in the 9/11 attack on the twin-towers in New York.

Jalaluddin was arrested here on a tip-off by central intelligence agencies from the neighbourhood of the Residency monument in the early hours of Saturday. Besides an AK-47 assault rifle and a Chinese pistol, the cops recovered more than nine kg of the lethal RDX explosive and detonators from him.

'Confessions made by Jalaluddin during interrogation revealed his connections with Umar Shaikh, one of the three notorious Pakistani militants released from Indian jails in exchange for the hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft in Kandhar on Dec 31, 1999,' disclosed the STF official.

British-born Umar Shaikh was an alumni of the London School of Economics.

The STF, which has been in constant touch with top central intelligence and investigation agencies, believes that Jalaluddin is 'one of the biggest terrorist catch in the country so far'.

He has been high on the 'wanted' list of West Bengal Police ever since his involvement in the kidnapping of Burman. 'The shoe tycoon was compelled to shell out a ransom of Rs.37.5 million against an initial demand of Rs.50 million. Another ransom of Rs.15 million is understood to have been grabbed from a coal merchant in Varanasi,' said the official.

'The money was first converted into dollars and then handed over to Bangladesh-based Umar Shaikh, who in turn passed it on to Mohammad Atta, widely believed by US intelligence agencies to be one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks.'

Jalaluddin confessed that he carted US$ 15,600 from Bangladesh to India when Mohammad Atta returned the leftover cash after carrying out the mission.

The 40-year-old hails from a village in the backward 24 Parganas district of West Bengal and received his education in a Bangladesh madrassa before he starting off his career as an ordinary fruit-seller in Kolkata.

It was a chance contact with Asif Raza, the kingpin of the Khadim Shoes owner's kidnapping, that led to him making his debut in militancy. Asif Raza, who later turned out to be the first area commander of HuJI operations in India, initially appointed Jalaludin on a monthly dole of Rs.2,000.

However, impressed by his potential, Asif sent Jalaluddin for training to ISI-run camps in Kotli region of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), along with 25 other Malaysian and African nationals, according to a dossier prepared on him by the STF. Following Asif's death in an encounter with the Gujarat police about two years ago, Jalaluddin was named as the new HuJI commander for India.

He had already confessed to planning major blasts in different parts of the country. A series of blasts were being planned during the forthcoming Sawan melas (monsoon fairs) at popular pilgrimage destinations in Uttar Pradesh like Varanasi, Ayodhya and Garh Mukhteshwar over the coming months, the STF claimed.

Rajkot kidnapping ransom used to fund 9/11 attack?
ATS to quiz HuJI men in Lucknow to know if part of Rs 3 cr went to Al-Qaeda for carrying out WTC attack

Source: expressindia.com

Vikram Rautela

Ahmedabad, June 29: The Gujarat ATS team that has reached Lucknow to interrogate two alleged militants of the banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi (HuJI) will try to know if part of the huge ransom money paid in a Rajkot kidnapping case was used to fund the infamous 9/11 WTC attack. The team has been briefed on these lines.

On Thursday, the team had left for Lucknow to quiz the two militants to find out if they were planning to kill anybody in Gujarat.

Earlier, the CBI had found through its probe that Rs 3 crore paid to the kidnappers in the sensational Bhaskar Parekh and Paresh Shah kidnapping case of Rajkot seven years ago was used to fund the 9/11 attack.

According to sources in Gujarat police, the ATS team has been briefed to interrogate the Pakistan-trained HuJI militants_ Babu and Noushad_ on these lines.

The two were arrested by the Special Task Force of Lucknow police from Wazirganj locality in Lucknow on June 22.

For the ATS, the hope lies in the fact that one of the two arrested, Babu, had become HuJI area commander after the outfit’s chief Asif Raza Khan was shot dead in a police encounter in Rajkot on December 7, 2001. Khan was also the prime accused in in the Parekh-Shah kidnap case that took place in November 2000.

Khan, according to intelligence reports, was looking after the operations of underworld don, Aftab Ansari, in India.

“Our investigations in the case had revealed that Ansari, Khan, and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Omar Shiekh were in constant touch through e-mails and that Khan had in August 2001 sent one lakh US dollars from the ransom money to Sheikh through Ansari. Where the money went from JeM, was however, not known,” said a former investigating officer of the case.

In 2002, Ansari was deported from Dubai and arrested by the CBI in connection with the January 22, 2002 attack on American Center in Kolkatta.

This came after Ansari declared that he had masterminded the attack in order to avenge Khan’s killing in Gujarat. Ansari, who has been sentenced to death, is currently lodged in a Kolkatta jail.

“Investigation report of the CBI said that one lakh US dollars sent to Sheikh were eventually passed on to prime accused of 9/11, Mohammad Atta of Al-Qaida, and used to fund the attack,” an intelligence officer here said.

Gujarat police, which traced the movement of money till JeM, however, has no evidence to prove that it actually went to Al-Qaida for funding the 9/11 attack on WTC. “We do not rule out the possibility of the same, but will have to investigate the case to make a comment,” said a senior police officer.