How ISI uses underworld to regroup terror in India

Madoor Isubu, an aide of underworld don Chota Shakeel, who was arrested recently by the Bengaluru police, has revealed during his interrogation about how groups such as the banned Students Islamic Movement of India are trying to re-group in India.

This interrogation of Isubu, which is currently underway in Bengaluru, also goes on to show how the members of the D-Gang are keeping a close watch on terror developments in India.

Groups such as the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen were down in the dumps following a major police crack down in various parts of the country.

However, Pakistani spy agency Inter Services Intelligence realises the importance of having a 'homegrown' outfit and it has been trying various means to ensure that these two organisations are back in the reckoning.

The arrest of Isubu has thrown up certain interesting points. Firstly, the ISI has been driving the underworld to help set up base for these two organisations in India.

The arrest of the various cadres of these two organisations were a big set back to ISI-sponsored terror operations in India and they were looking for various ways to regroup these two outfits.

The first attempt made by the ISI was to involve the underworld and ensure that these groups are back in the reckoning. A few members of the D-Gang were sent down and were asked to get in touch with the Naxals, which they did ultimately.

The underworld had assured the Naxal groups of money and ammunition if they helped both the SIMI and the IM set up their base once again. To get this plan through, the D-Gang, at the insistence of the ISI, has sent a man by the name Altaaf Alia to India and he was supposed to get in touch with the Naxals.

Alia, on the other hand, assigned this job to two of his men. However as talks were on with the Naxals, these men were arrested and during their interrogation they revealed their plan to the police.

Now, with the arrest of Isubu, who is closely associated with Alia, new leads are coming out and the police say that the underworld is now in talks with some political parties to help SIMI and the IM set up their base once again.

Isubu, during his interrogation, told the police that although he was not directly involved in this, he had information about the underworld trying to rope in some political parties to help SIMI and Indian Mujahideen.

The police say that they will have to investigate further to find out how much of a link such political parties have with the underworld, which in turn is trying its best to ensure that home grown terror outfits are back in the reckoning.

"It won't be fair to take names of these parties at the moment, since we will need to ascertain what exactly he is saying before coming to any conclusion," a police official, on conditions of anonymity, told rediff.com.