It was another July when it all began. Sixteen months after the Bombay bomb blasts of 1993 which he helped engineer, Yakub Memon decided to return to India from Pakistan. Following a covert deal with intelligence agencies (alluded to in intelligence officer B Raman's posthumously-published piece last week), Yakub's arrest was staged at New Delhi railway station on July 24, 1994. He marked his 32nd birthday while in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Just as Ajmal Kasab's arrest on the night of November 26, 2008, provided clinching proof of Pakistan's complicity, Yakub returned to India with demonstrable proof of the ISI's involvement in the terror strike on Bombay.
Here are ten things we wouldn't have known if, like Tiger, he had chosen to stay on in Pakistan:
1. Police witness number two Usman Jan Khan had provided vital inputs on the conspirators' travel to and training in the forested hills near Islamabad but he could not furnish any documentary proof against Pakistan. Yakub brought loads of evidence against Pakistan which bridged the gap between suspicion, knowledge and incontrovertible proof that could be presented in any court of law.
2. This began with the 12 Pakistani passports of the Memon clan, with bonafide Pakistani citizenship papers that Yakub got back and which allowed India to contest Islamabad's denial of any role in the blasts. Yakub revealed to the investigators that the family patriarch, Abdul Razzak Memon, had been given the name of Ahmed Mohammad Jamal (Pakistani passport no AA 763649), and his mother was now Zainab Ahmed (PP no AA 763645). Tiger Memon was Ahmed Jamaal (PP no 762402), Suleman Memon was Aftaab Ahmed (PP no AA 763651), while Yakub himself had been renamed as Yusuf Ahmed (PP no AA 763242), and his wife Raheen was called Zeba Yusuf Ahmed (PP no 763646). He furnished Pakistani passport details of the rest of the family too.
3. As India mounted pressure immediately after the blasts, Pakistan, at one point, openly challenged international officials from the United Nations or anyone from a neutral country to visit Pakistan and find any of the Memon family living there. But worried at the same time if that came to pass, the ISI moved the entire Memon clan to a hideout in Pattaya, Thailand, in April 1993. It would have been difficult for the Indian prosecution to establish this move from Pakistan, if Yakub hadn't provided them details of travel dates, entry and exit stamps and even visa numbers that the Thai embassy in Islamabad had issued to 12 'Pakistani' nationals on April 15, 1993. Yakub also gave other significant details like all 12 visas were issued from file number 2536 and their visa serials ranged from no 741 to 752. (For instance, the investigators found, Tiger's passport had Thai visa no 752/2536). Yakub and his wife Raheen travelled on visa no 745/2536 and 743/2536. These details exposed Pakistan and helped India make a case for Pakistan to be declared a state that sponsored terrorism.
4. The haze surrounding important players in Dubai and Pakistan was considerably cleared by Yakub's statement to the prosecutor. Yakub revealed that his brother Tiger took instructions from as certain Taufiq Jaliawala who was the main financier and organizer of the blasts and who was based out of Dubai. Jaliawala, a Pakistani, did this in collusion with certain ISI officers from Islamabad. Initially, when the fled Mumbai, Jaliawala had housed the Memons in his own bungalow in Karachi called Qasr Rayaz. Later, he bought them a posh mansion called Ahmed House at the Karachi Development Scheme for Rs 1.16 crore in 1993.
5. Yakub provided the CBI and Intelligence Bureau with vital property documents and bank papers which clearly indicated how Pakistan had not only harboured the Memons but even rehabilitated them in many ways. Tiger and Ayub for instance were provided funds to start a construction business in Karachi as also a rice exports business in Dubai. Once again, this documentary evidence proved irrefutable for the Pakistani government.
6. Yakub also provided the whereabouts of 10 other absconding blasts accused including Javed Chikna and Anwar Theba both of whom had rallied the junior associates after Tiger escaped on the morning of March 12. All these men were provided shelter by the ISI and Jaliawala.
7. As proof of Jaliawala's nexus with the ISI, Yakub also got hold of a video cassette of Jaliawala's daughter Rabia's wedding to Farooq, son of Mumbai underworld operative Feroz Dadi. The April 30, 1994 wedding was attended by the creme de la creme of Pakistan as also a few prominent men from Mumbai. Jaliawala had prohibited the Memons from attending this wedding lest any guest from Mumbai recognized them and yet Yakub managed to procure the VCR of the wedding reception as proof of his eagerness to cooperate with Indian investigators.
8. Whilst in Pakistan Yakub had even begun recording conversations between Jaliawala, Tiger Memon and other ISI operatives to prove their involvements in the blasts. Yakub brought three audio microcassettes with such conversations when he returned to India. The CBI later transcribed the conversations and beefed up their dossiers. Yakub also videographed the bungalows of Jaliawala, Tiger and Dawood Ibrahim. He claimed he did so because he wanted to gather evidence against his brother so he could save the rest of his family.
9. Yakub revealed how following the '92-'93 riots in Bombay, the entire gamut of events unfolded with meetings between Raza Ashfaq Sarvar, the then minister in the Muslim League government of Punjab, Pakistan, and Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon in Dubai. This went a long way in establishing that Pakistan had actively encouraged terror in India and not merely provided asylum to subjugated Muslims as it claimed subsequently.
10. Finally, Yakub engineered the return of several members of the Memon clan from Dubai with the help of one of his cousins, Usman, who had become his confidante in his 'Mission Homecoming' as described by a top IB officer. The entire Memon clan had been declared proclaimed offenders after the blasts, they had a pending red corner notice against them and a reward of Rs 1 lakh for any information on them. Within a month of Yakub's landing in New Delhi by Air India flight 736 from Kathmandu, the other Memons were also back in India. Parents Abdul Razzak Memon and Hanifa, then in their sixties, were accompanied by his other brothers Suleman, Isa and Yusuf. Suleman's wife Rubina and their children, 7-year-old Ilyaas and 5-year-old Aliyah too returned. Now, only five members of the Memon clan were missing. This included Tiger and his wife Shabana and another brother Ayyub and his wife Reshma.
On September 11 of that year Yakub's wife Raheen along with their infant daughter Zubeida too landed from Dubai. None of these family members would have returned to India if Yakub and his cousin had not persuaded them to do so. (Courtesy)
Just as Ajmal Kasab's arrest on the night of November 26, 2008, provided clinching proof of Pakistan's complicity, Yakub returned to India with demonstrable proof of the ISI's involvement in the terror strike on Bombay.
Here are ten things we wouldn't have known if, like Tiger, he had chosen to stay on in Pakistan:
1. Police witness number two Usman Jan Khan had provided vital inputs on the conspirators' travel to and training in the forested hills near Islamabad but he could not furnish any documentary proof against Pakistan. Yakub brought loads of evidence against Pakistan which bridged the gap between suspicion, knowledge and incontrovertible proof that could be presented in any court of law.
2. This began with the 12 Pakistani passports of the Memon clan, with bonafide Pakistani citizenship papers that Yakub got back and which allowed India to contest Islamabad's denial of any role in the blasts. Yakub revealed to the investigators that the family patriarch, Abdul Razzak Memon, had been given the name of Ahmed Mohammad Jamal (Pakistani passport no AA 763649), and his mother was now Zainab Ahmed (PP no AA 763645). Tiger Memon was Ahmed Jamaal (PP no 762402), Suleman Memon was Aftaab Ahmed (PP no AA 763651), while Yakub himself had been renamed as Yusuf Ahmed (PP no AA 763242), and his wife Raheen was called Zeba Yusuf Ahmed (PP no 763646). He furnished Pakistani passport details of the rest of the family too.
3. As India mounted pressure immediately after the blasts, Pakistan, at one point, openly challenged international officials from the United Nations or anyone from a neutral country to visit Pakistan and find any of the Memon family living there. But worried at the same time if that came to pass, the ISI moved the entire Memon clan to a hideout in Pattaya, Thailand, in April 1993. It would have been difficult for the Indian prosecution to establish this move from Pakistan, if Yakub hadn't provided them details of travel dates, entry and exit stamps and even visa numbers that the Thai embassy in Islamabad had issued to 12 'Pakistani' nationals on April 15, 1993. Yakub also gave other significant details like all 12 visas were issued from file number 2536 and their visa serials ranged from no 741 to 752. (For instance, the investigators found, Tiger's passport had Thai visa no 752/2536). Yakub and his wife Raheen travelled on visa no 745/2536 and 743/2536. These details exposed Pakistan and helped India make a case for Pakistan to be declared a state that sponsored terrorism.
4. The haze surrounding important players in Dubai and Pakistan was considerably cleared by Yakub's statement to the prosecutor. Yakub revealed that his brother Tiger took instructions from as certain Taufiq Jaliawala who was the main financier and organizer of the blasts and who was based out of Dubai. Jaliawala, a Pakistani, did this in collusion with certain ISI officers from Islamabad. Initially, when the fled Mumbai, Jaliawala had housed the Memons in his own bungalow in Karachi called Qasr Rayaz. Later, he bought them a posh mansion called Ahmed House at the Karachi Development Scheme for Rs 1.16 crore in 1993.
5. Yakub provided the CBI and Intelligence Bureau with vital property documents and bank papers which clearly indicated how Pakistan had not only harboured the Memons but even rehabilitated them in many ways. Tiger and Ayub for instance were provided funds to start a construction business in Karachi as also a rice exports business in Dubai. Once again, this documentary evidence proved irrefutable for the Pakistani government.
6. Yakub also provided the whereabouts of 10 other absconding blasts accused including Javed Chikna and Anwar Theba both of whom had rallied the junior associates after Tiger escaped on the morning of March 12. All these men were provided shelter by the ISI and Jaliawala.
7. As proof of Jaliawala's nexus with the ISI, Yakub also got hold of a video cassette of Jaliawala's daughter Rabia's wedding to Farooq, son of Mumbai underworld operative Feroz Dadi. The April 30, 1994 wedding was attended by the creme de la creme of Pakistan as also a few prominent men from Mumbai. Jaliawala had prohibited the Memons from attending this wedding lest any guest from Mumbai recognized them and yet Yakub managed to procure the VCR of the wedding reception as proof of his eagerness to cooperate with Indian investigators.
8. Whilst in Pakistan Yakub had even begun recording conversations between Jaliawala, Tiger Memon and other ISI operatives to prove their involvements in the blasts. Yakub brought three audio microcassettes with such conversations when he returned to India. The CBI later transcribed the conversations and beefed up their dossiers. Yakub also videographed the bungalows of Jaliawala, Tiger and Dawood Ibrahim. He claimed he did so because he wanted to gather evidence against his brother so he could save the rest of his family.
9. Yakub revealed how following the '92-'93 riots in Bombay, the entire gamut of events unfolded with meetings between Raza Ashfaq Sarvar, the then minister in the Muslim League government of Punjab, Pakistan, and Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon in Dubai. This went a long way in establishing that Pakistan had actively encouraged terror in India and not merely provided asylum to subjugated Muslims as it claimed subsequently.
10. Finally, Yakub engineered the return of several members of the Memon clan from Dubai with the help of one of his cousins, Usman, who had become his confidante in his 'Mission Homecoming' as described by a top IB officer. The entire Memon clan had been declared proclaimed offenders after the blasts, they had a pending red corner notice against them and a reward of Rs 1 lakh for any information on them. Within a month of Yakub's landing in New Delhi by Air India flight 736 from Kathmandu, the other Memons were also back in India. Parents Abdul Razzak Memon and Hanifa, then in their sixties, were accompanied by his other brothers Suleman, Isa and Yusuf. Suleman's wife Rubina and their children, 7-year-old Ilyaas and 5-year-old Aliyah too returned. Now, only five members of the Memon clan were missing. This included Tiger and his wife Shabana and another brother Ayyub and his wife Reshma.
On September 11 of that year Yakub's wife Raheen along with their infant daughter Zubeida too landed from Dubai. None of these family members would have returned to India if Yakub and his cousin had not persuaded them to do so. (Courtesy)
Comments