The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the investigation of the conspiracy case involving Lashkar-e-Tayyaba activist Zia Ul Haq from the Special Investigation Team of the city police. This is the first case in the state being taken over by the NIA. “The NIA has taken over the case of Zia Ul Haq and has filed a petition in the court indicating this,” said the Central Crime Station deputy commissioner of police, Mr J. Satyanarayana.
Police said that the conspiracy case of Zia had been handed over to the NIA since it had wider ramifications. It is believed that 25 terror suspects got trained along with him in Pakistan and had intruded into the country. Zia was named an accused in the hand grenade blast at Odeon theatre on May 7 in 2006.
The LeT man had confessed that he was inspired by Jamat ud Dawaa leader Abdul Rahman Makki, a deputy of Hafiz Saeed, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks. A senior police officer said NIA had more sophisticated equipment and nationwide jurisdiction and could conduct a comprehensive probe. “Zia’s mentor, Abu Rehan alias Abdul Aziz, was directing terror activities in South India from Bangladesh and Nepal,” he said. “Rehan will also be made an accused in the case.”
NIA sleuths will also probe how Zia got hold of Chinese hand grenades and Chinese pistols. Zia, who conducted a recce of the Hitec City to carry out attacks, is facing charges of Passport Act violations too.
Zia Haq's Pak connections
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| Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Mr A K Khan showing pics of Zia Ul Haq |
In the confession report to SIT, the copy of which is available with this newspaper, Haq confessed, “while working as salesman in a textile company I used to visit a religious place in Jeddah in Saudi where I was most inspired with the preaching and speeches of Abu Ali of Pakistan and Abdul Rehman Makki of LeT-JUD cadre. Abu Ali used to play the CDs of Godhra carnage and other incidents and encourage us. It was Abu Ali of Pakistan who introduced me to Abdul Aziz.”
The investigators also found that on the instructions of LeT commander, Abdul Aziz, Haq crossed the border and went to Bang-ladesh with the support of one Shahi-Ul-Islam in 2008. An investigating official said, “Abdul Aziz alias Abu Rehan is guiding the terror activities in South India from Bangladesh and Nepal.
Haq confessed to the police that he was supposed to meet Abu Ali in Bang-ladesh, but returned as he could not complete the task. “I was trained in the Muzaffarabad camp for a month in handling and usage of explosives, fire arms, etc. I interacted with our instructors Abu Hafis, Sami, Abdul Aziz, Musamil and Zaki-u-Rahman, all Pakistanis. They have given me a specific task in Hyderabad. There were about 25 students in the training camp,” said Haq.
He also said he was under pressure from his handlers to carry out attacks in the city; the latest conspiracy being attack on places frequented by foreigners.
Haq's Hawala Links?
Officials of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) suspect that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative, Zia-ul- Haq, might have received large sums of money through hawala channels and other illegal means to perform his subversive activities. Police has found several transactions involving lakhs of rupees in his bank accounts in the city.
They wonder how a taxi driver could have such large sums in his account. Police is waiting for the transaction details from the ICICI bank’s Charminar branch, ABM Amro bank at Banjara Hills, Andhra Bank at Mehdipatnam and HDFC bank. Haq had accounts in all these banks.
Haq was also apparently using five SIM cards — three of Reliance and two of Idea — and the call details from these numbers have to be obtained from the service providers. “We have to identify the locations of the cellphone towers he used before he was arrested,” said an official. Investigators have also seized four hard disks from two cyber cafes in the city and sent them to APFSL for cyber forensic analysis.
Records of Sree Vishnu cyber cafe at Mehdipatnam show that Haq had visited the cafe on April 5, 2010. He had used the cafe three to four times. Two hard disks were seized from the cyber cafe. Haq had also visited another cyber cafe, Amaan Communications at Mehdipatnam, on April 10 and April 27 and contacted his handler Abdul Aziz of Pakistan.
The sleuths are working to crack the code language used by the suspect Haq. “Whenever terror operatives communicate with each other they use a code language. We have to decode this in this case,” said a police official. The accused had made several phone calls to countries including Saudi Arabia. “He made many phone calls and we need to know his contact details abroad. He stayed in a lodge in Delhi for two days in 2005 and met unknown persons and received weapons,” said an official.
Police also said there are several discrepancies in the passport applications filed by him with the Regional Passport Office.
Passport violation by Zia Haq
The Special Investigation Team of city police investigating the case of conspiracy booked against LeT operative Zia Ul Haq found that he has violated the provisions of the Passport Act.
Police said that Haq used a fake address and date of birth while procuring the passport.
The police is now discussing whether to book a separate case against Haq or to include the passport violation in the conspiracy case.
Zial Ul Haq obtained a passport in February 1995 from the Hyderabad passport office with the address as Jyothibagh in Yakutpura. He had quoted his date of birth as 19 February, 1972, by filing an affidavit with the officials.
Haq went to Dubai and worked there. From there he went to Saudi Arabia and then to Pakistan and got trained in the terror camp in Muzaffarabad, police said.
A senior investigating official said, “As his passport was taken away in the terror camp. He infiltrated into the country through Poonch in 2005. In 2006 he again applied for a passport in the name of Mohammed Zia ul Haque with a Muradnagar address. This time he applied for the passport with an SSC certificate that showed his date of birth as on October 19, 1976.”
