On the evening of July 11, 2006, seven bombs exploded in local trains in Mumbai, killing 187 people and leaving 817 injured. Investigation into the terror attacks – which came to be known as the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts – led to the arrest of 13 people, allegedly linked to Pakistan-based operatives.
In September 2015, a special court in Mumbai convicted 12 of the accused people while one was acquitted. The court awarded the death penalty to five accused – Kamal Ahmed Ansari, Mohammad Faishal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Naveed Hussain Khan, and Asif Bashir Khan. Seven others, including Sohail Mehboob Shaikh from Pune, were sentenced to imprisonment for life.
However, three more accused from Pune – Mohammed Raheel Ataur Rehman Shaikh, Rizwan Mohammed Daware, and Sohail Usman Gani Shaikh – continue to be on the run for their alleged role in the 7/11 terror strikes. Their names and photographs were printed on the ‘Wanted’ pocket calendar for 2015, prepared by the state anti-terrorism squad (ATS).
The calendar stated that Mohammed Raheel Shaikh resided at Kubera Garden in Pune’s Kondhwa and in Thane. Daware, a software professional, was a resident of Premanand Park in Wanavdi, while Sohail Shaikh was then a resident of Gaffar Baig Street in Pune Camp.
Investigation has revealed that the 7/11 attacks were allegedly masterminded by Azam Chima, a Pakistani operative of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). He reportedly played a key role in indoctrinating and training operatives of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for the terror attack.
The police claimed that accused Mohammed Faizal, an alleged SIMI member, procured an Indian passport from Pune, using which he went to Pakistan on October 1, 2001. He was then said to be trained by Chima and sent back to India the following month. Then, Mohammed Faizal allegedly took Sohail to Pakistan in November 2002 for training at Chima’s camp.
Investigators found that along with Sohail, other convicts – who are Sunni Muslims – also travelled to Pakistan via Iran on a Jiyarat visa. This was suspicious, they said, as usually Shiya Muslims go to Iran on Jiyarat visas for pilgrimage to visit the tomb of their religious leader Imam Reza, located in Mashhad.
The probe revealed that the accused did not go to Mashhad but went to Pakistan by crossing the Iran border. The police suspect this was done so their passports would not bear stamps of arrival or departure in Pakistan.
The police believe the accused may have been indoctrinated in Pakistan by foreign trainers. On returning to India, the plan to cause explosions in Western Railway’s local trains in Mumbai was allegedly finalised at Mohammed Faizal’s house in Mumbai in May 2006.
The bombs were allegedly assembled in pressure cookers using RDX smuggled in by Pakistani operatives. They were triggered to explode in the evening on a working day to cause maximum damage within just 11 minutes.
Meanwhile, the police claimed that between 1999 and 2006, Chima routed money through Rizwan Daware and Raheel Shaikh to Faizal for “jihadi” activities.
Daware worked at a private firm in Pune before leaving home on April 6, 2006, with his wife and four children. He went to Saudi Arabia and never returned. Accused Sohail Shaikh is suspected to have met Raheel, also a software professional, in Saudi Arabia.
Investigators claim to have evidence of Daware and Raheel allegedly distributing about Rs 3.6 lakh along with 80,200 Saudi Riyals to terror operatives in India through hawala channels. The money was reportedly used for terror training and travel purposes. Even after the explosions, Daware allegedly sent 11,200 Saudi Riyals through a person in Pune on July 14, 2006. Mohammed Faizal, suspected to be Raheel’s brother, was arrested before he could allegedly collect this money.
The probe revealed that Mumbai native Raheel Shaikh shifted to Kondhwa in Pune, and then to Dubai after working for some period in Bengaluru. Police suspect that he later went to the United Kingdom. In 2008, the Maharashtra Police tried to contact the UK authorities believing that Raheel was held in Birmingham on the basis of an Interpol Red Corner notice, and a recovery of a passport issued to him from Pune. Indian agencies tried to get information about Raheel from the UK, but no confirmation was provided and he continues to remain at large, the police said.
Refuting the allegations against them, the convicts have moved the Bombay High Court against the trial court’s order. The matter is currently pending before the high court.
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