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“Omar Saeed Sheikh was the hoax caller. It was he who threatened the civilian and military leaderships of Pakistan over telephone. And he did so from inside Hyderabad jail,” investigators said.
The controversy came to light after Dawn broke the story, one year ago, that a hoax caller claiming to be then Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was making threatening calls to President Zardari.
It was on the night of November 26 last year that Saadia Omar, Omar Sheikh’s wife, informed him about the carnage in Mumbai. Sources said that the information was passed on to Omar in Hyderabad jail through his mobile phone, which he was secretly using without the knowledge of the administration.
Saadia kept updating Omar about the massacre through the night and small hours of the morning. On the night of November 28, when the authorities had regained control over the better part of the city, Omar Saeed, using a UK-registered mobile SIM, made a phone call to Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
He told an operator handling Mukherjee’s calls that he was the President of Pakistan. Indian officials started verification as part of security precautions and, after some time, the operator informed Omar that the Foreign Minister would get in touch with him soon.
Omar then made a call to President Asif Ali Zardari and another to the Chief of Army Staff. He also made an attempt to talk to the US Secretary of State, but security checks barred his way.
The presidency swung into action soon after Zardari’s conversation with the adventurous militant. Zardari first spoke to Prime Minister Gilani and informed him about the happenings. He also took Interior Minister Rehman Malik into the loop.
In Rawalpindi, Gen Kayani immediately spoke to the chief of the Inter Services Intelligence, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
According to sources, not only President Asif Zardari was taken in by Omar’s audacity but the COAS was also baffled by his cheekiness.
Gen Kayani, sharing his thoughts with close associates, said he had been bewildered by the caller’s threatening tone. But Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the military spokesman, finds the report unbelievable. “I am not his (Army chief’s) operator. I don’t know who puts calls through to him, but I think this can’t be true,” said Athar Abbas.
Interestingly, when Omar Saeed Sheikh was making these hoax calls, the Lashkar-e-Toiba chief was also in Karachi, but it is not known whether Omar Saeed was acting under the guidance of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi or on his own.
Investigators got into the act without wasting time, coming up with their findings within hours. Their conclusion was that the phone call which came from the Indian External Affairs Ministry was actually their (Indians’) check. They said calls to President Zardari and the Army chief were made from a Britain-registered SIM.
Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf, in his autobiography, had alleged that Omar Saeed was an agent of MI6, the British intelligence agency.
The very next morning, November 29, Hyderabad jail was raided by intelligence agencies and over a dozen SIMs were recovered along with two mobile sets. Majid Siddiqui, the jail superintendent, was suspended.
“I don’t know much but it is true that some mobile SIMs and mobile sets were recovered from Omar Saeed Sheikh when he was in Hyderabad jail. I got him transferred to Karachi jail because that is a far better place for such high-profile terrorists,” Allauddin Abbasi, DIG Prisons, Hyderabad, told Dawn over phone.
The authorities had a word with Saadia Omar too. She was advised to “control” herself. The matter was then placed in the files of secret agencies marked as ‘secret’.
The Federal Investigation Agency never interrogated Omar Saeed about the Mumbai attacks. Dawn’s efforts for getting the viewpoint of Tariq Khosa , the FIA chief, drew a blank.
Omar, currently confined in a high security cell of Karachi Jail, has a long record of militancy, from kidnapping foreigners in Mumbai in 1994 to kidnapping Daniel Pearl in January 2002. He was freed by India in December 1999 as part of a deal that saw New Delhi agreeing to release militant leaders in exchange for the freedom of hostages on board an India plane hijacked to Kabul.
Soon after his release from Indian captivity, Omar Saeed developed close relations with the LeT leadership, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. He was invited to a training camp in Muzaffarabad where he spent a couple of days delivering lectures to recruits. Sources said Lakhvi wanted Omar to join LeT and give the organisation an international face. In February 2002, Omar was arrested for the murder of Daniel Pearl. — Dawn, Pakistan
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In Mumbai as well as in whole Maharastra job has been created by non mumbaikar/non marathis & prompoter of the company give equal opportunities to marathis as well as non marathis.It is upto marathis how much they are capable to grap the job.Since the nation is one and citizen of country has right to migrate any where in country to look job/ earnings.
This points to the corruption in our system. Even terrosits locked up can make calls from prisons. This also reflects on the people. We as a society have become very corrupt. The politicians are only a reflection of this in the mirror. We lost tolerance and human values. Once we gain that our political and rest of the systems will be reformed. It is peoples hand.
The fragile Pakistani system is exposed! Any fake jihadi can call Paki PM/Prez, and a threat would send them scurrying to push the nuke button. The only course for safety is to secure the Paki nukes by international control and dismantle them completely, followed by complete disintegration of Pakis for the safety of humanity.
Thanks to the spineless BJP, these guys are roaming around free. Had 'Loh Purush' made a single call to Amritsar airport and ordered a constable to park a jeep on the runway, the Kandahar drama would not have happened. Unfortunately, Loh Purush has a tendency to go missing at crucial times, and Vajpayee used to be in perennial coma in any case.
its not fault of BJP. Just review the stituatuion at that time. NGO and parents of passengers are protesting at PMO. Nut you can blame at congress for release of terrors for mehabooba mufti !!!
Sagar, the Janata Dal led by V.P. Singh released 5 terrorists in 1989 in exchange for the release of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union Home Minister. The Janata Dal ran a minority government with the outside support of the BJP. The BJP chose not to withdraw support to this government because it matched their own style as we saw in the case of the 1999 plane hijacking. They withdrew support to the JD government only in 1990 when the low purush was arrested and his rathayatra halted.
Who are Marathis to impose Marathi on North Indian ? Marathis are advised not to pour water on fire. They would be isolated and stripped of all the jobs outside Maharashtra and deported from foreign countries.
who are you ? my sister please try to develope your own state rather than advising others.
Bombay has population of 120 lakhs and 80 lakhs people speak hindi. And Marathis are advising us not to speak hindi and giving examples of Tamilnadu and Nagaland where hardly any hindi speaking person lives. Bombay is facing son of soil syndrome. Linguistic regionalism is fuelling separatism. Marathis are chanting Jai Maharashtra instead of chanting Jai Hind which is unacceptable. The insult of hindi will not be tolerated. Marathis should fall in line before Hindi speaking hindus lose their cool. Marathism must respect sentiment of Indian nation or else hindi speaking people will roll up thier sleeves.
Ignore this user who is consistently putting provoking statement against Maharashtra and Mumbai. Irrespective of any subject the person is trying to disturb the readers of IE and mostly Maharashtrian. Also I am quite sure the identity is also fake, and the person had literally doesn%u2019t bother about Mumbai, Hindi or India. Requesting IE to publish relevant comments with the topics and plz do compile the statements before publishing it. Anyone who is mentally ill (Like Mona Sharma) want to provoke people using her statement and start verbal abusing in between readers. Meanwhile she is enjoying debate in between the other readers started from her statements. I have replied to above person quite few times however never got a single reply. She had put the same statement in almost every topic. Try search IE with the above name.
It was Jawahar who divided India into linguistic states. Each state is supposed to have its own language - so why blame Marathis? Why can't migrants to Mumbai learn the local language? To claim that 67% in Mumbai (not Bombay) speak Hindi is hilarious. Monoaji - please ask Chidambaram and Antony - both Ministers - to speak in Hindi first. PLease educate them that Hindi is their national language. Then, you may worry about Maharashtra. Why can't Hindi people work hard and create jobs in their own states - so that, they do not have to migrate to Mumbai? Are they not capable?
How can you folks be so naive? Omar Sheikh? I am not sympathizer of that SOB, but honestly I remember Paki Info minister Sherry Rahman claiming the call came from Delhi and specifically Foriegn Ministry and being verified. Do not forget the so called hoax call was made a day before operation had ended in Mumbai. Media should not forget the course of events, even if average joe on street cannot remember. This was a desparate attempt of pakistani government to pressurize US of consequences and Condi visited Pakistan week after the incident on wednesday. (she was supposed to visit Delhi per plan and this incident made a small digression in her program). Now when caught with lies, pakistan is pushing it on this terrorist. Now here is the thing, this whole thing shows ISI and Pakistani government being party to same clandestine act against India. IE - some sanity and some intelligence expected from you. BTW what is IQ of your reporters?
Separate Bombay from Maharashtra. Marathis are the root cause for all the problems in Bombay. They want reservation for all the jobs without competition or merit. They feel that everything belongs to Marathis only and others are outsiders.
DEar Sir, This is a nice cock tail for those who believe in tales. It is not so easy for Mr. Pranab Mukerjee to recognise the voice of Mr Zardari nor is it vice versa. Each of them are well familiar with each other, how to talk and what to talk. However, the comments made by one "Thali Ka Bengun" that "Na Khuda hi mila na visale sanam, na idher ke rahe na udher ke hi" is most suited to this occasion. Now, we are beating our breasts and flagging a floged dead horse. With no lessons learnt, we light candles and make a drum noise. What is the follow up action to prevent such recurrances is not visible to the common masses, who live under perpetual threat. Rise to the ocdacion,Oh! concerned to prevent such rucurrences.
media is so engrossed in 26/11 that it completly forgot about EID AL Azha celebrated by worlds second largest religion- muslims. Muslims are always taken for granted, its about time this stopped
what nonsence you are talking. Why you are posing as India. You are simple an anti inidan giving useless statement. Dont say you are seond largest population. What the hell is going on. Simple you are nonsence, you have no sence what you are talking for?
At least in India, who cares about Bakrid? It's Diwali, Navratri and Ganesh Chaturthi that matters.
If it was not because of the cowardice decision of the home minister in Dec 1999,Omar Sheikh would still be in Indian jail and Neither Daniel Pearl would die, nor would 166 people in Bombay on 26/11. The home minister should be hanged for this treason of releasing the terrorists by accepting some kickbacks due to personal greed. The home minister condemns the great leaders like Pandit Ji while in India and praises Jinnah while in his mother land Pakistan. IE, do you have guts to print it for a change?
It is astonishing to learn that Omer Saeed Sheikh have used cell phone inside a prison at Hyderabad. The crux of the whole issue is: How did a cell phone get inside a jail to a prisoner? Does it not indicate lack of responsibility and dereliction of duty of the jail personnel concerned? The deputy inspector general, prisons, Hyderabad, Mr. Allauddin Abbasi have admitted of the "loose system" in the jail? As a senior officer of the jail did he take measure to plug the loose system?
Wow!! Are the pakistani leaders so stupid that they can not distinguish between the Bengali clown and beard gorilla. I thought only we have privileged to be ruled by stupidest.
The bungling of the Indian Airlines airplane hijack to Kandahar was another bungling by Indian administration!! The airplane should not have been allowed to take off from Indian territory no matter what the cost! By releasing militants India contributed not only to 9/11 but also to 26/11. Indian politicians are men of straw!!