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Journalism of Courage
The 1993 blasts marked the first time Pakistans ISI had used the Mumbai underworld to provide infrastructure and logistical support on such a scale,according to investigators. The prime players from the Mumbai underworld were Dawood Ibrahim,Mohammed Ahmed Umar Dossa,and Ibrahim alias Mushtaq Abdul Razak Nadim Memon alias Tiger Memon.
The blasts also exposed links between the underworld and Bollywod,police say.
He added,We also recovered 13 pistols of the Star make,which were manufactured in Pakistan at the Golden Nedi Arms Factory. The 10 Pakistani gunmen involved in the 26/11 attack,too,carried Arges grenades and Star pistols.
Besides,passports seized from several of the accused revealed that they had gone to Pakistan via Dubai for terrorist training with the help of the ISI. The passports had immigration stamps for their travel from Mumbai to Dubai,and stamps for their exit from Dubai and return to Dubai. There was an unaccounted period of 45 days for which there was no stamp. They had undergone terror training in Pakistan during this period. They returned to Dubai,and then went to Mumbai again. There are confessional statements,including that of the approver,describing how the accused went to Pakistan for terrorist training, said Maria.
About Bollywoods links to the underworld,Maria said,This was the first time the Bollywood-underworld nexus came to be known. Earlier,underworld elements used to go for the muhurat of films,or were seen attending parties thrown by movie personalities. This time,a clear link was exposed. Two accused,Hanif Kadawala and Sameer Hingora,ran a firm called Magnum Productions. Hingora was also the treasurer of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association.
Tiger Memon fled Mumbai for Dubai on March 12,1993,then to Pakistan on March 17 when it became public knowledge that his family was involved in the blasts. The police had gathered evidence of hawala transactions of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh on March 10 and 11,1993,under Memons codename Hathi. The police also had records of 60,771 being routed from the Gulf into a bank account in the name of Memons firm Tejarat International in Mumbai.
According to Maria,the investigations had revealed that the initial plans of the prime conspirators were for terror attacks to be executed on Shiv Jayanti in April 1993 in Mumbai as well as in Chennai ,Kolkata and Delhi. However,after one of his men was arrested by the Nirmal Nagar police station for getting involved in a brawl,Tiger Memon decided to advance the schedule of the blasts .
The plan was to cause communal riots through the blasts,then to give Muslim youths assault rifles and train them for further violence, said Maria.
