Gujarat ATS nabs terrorist with suspected role in 2002 American Center attack in Kolkata

Ahmedabad: The Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat police has nabbed a dreaded terrorist from Aurangabad district of Bihar who was wanted in the 2002 terror attack on the American Center in Kolkata.

ATS SP Himanshu Shukla said that one Hassan Imam (44), a native of Gaya in Bihar, has been nabbed by the ATS from Aurangabad where he was living in hiding on the basis of a tip off.

The attack on the American center in which four police constables and a private security guard were killed and 20 others including 14 policemen injured on January 22, 2002, is said to be a plot by Islamist terrorist to avenge the death of one of their aides Asif Raza, who was killed in an encounter in Gujarat.

Mr Shukla said that Hassan who also had links with various international terrorists including Mufti Kifaitulla who was involved in sensational hijack of Air India flight IC 814 which was taken to Kandhar to secure release of Azhar Masood, has been brought to Ahmedabad for further interrogation.

Two motorcycle-borne attackers refusing to stop at checkpoints fired at police guards from an AK-47 assault rifle during the incident. Its prime suspect Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Malik was arrested the very next day in Dubai and was deported to India. Aftab, a Hurkat ul Jihad E Islam (HUJI) operative had arranged the kidnap of the son of a Rajkot based business man and his friend to extort Rs 20 crore to pay to a Jaish E Mohammed operative for supply of arms and explosives. But police foiled the bid and one of the over 40 accused of the kidnapping case Asif Reza, an aide of Aftab was killed in an encounter by Gujarat police in November 2001. Aftab had made Asif Reza commando force to avenge his killing. Imam was an active member of this terror squad.

They had thought that the Kolkata police had helped Gujarat police in Asif’s encouter. They first planned to attack Rajkot police station and later a police station in Kolkata but finding it tough they changed the plan and finally attacked American Center. Imam had provided the motorcycle used in the killing and assisted the conspirators from beginning till the end, Mr Shukla said.

In April 2005 ,a Special CBI Court found Aftab Ansari and six others guilty for the attack. Aftab Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir were sentenced to death under Section 121 of the Indian Penal Code for waging war against the state. The others sentenced along with Ansari were: Rehan Alam, Musharat Hussain, Adil Hasan, Hasrat Alam and Shakir Akhtar.. On 5 February 2010, the Calcutta High Court upheld the death sentence of Aftab Ansari and Jamiluddin Nasir but commuted the capital punishment awarded to three others to seven years imprisonment.

The Supreme court in May 2014 commuted the death sentence of two convicts and ordered that the mastermind Aftab will remain behind bars till death while his accomplice Nasir will spend 30 years in jail without remission.

DeshGujarat