Indian intelligence blunder sparks anger in Pakistan, jokes at home

Ali_Syed · May 11, 2012, 10:27pm

A few days ago Indian media alleged that some terrorists have entered Mumbai for terrorist activities, all of those alleged terrorists are working in Lahore in Hafeez Center where cellphones and computers are sold. Tells something about the seriousness of Indian media and capabilities of Indian intelligence agencies.

Remaining ‘to-be-Mumbai-terrorists’ also emerge from Lahore’s Hafeez Centre – The Express Tribune

****LAHORE: **Indian media released pictures of two of the five suspected terrorists on Thursday believed to have sneaked in to Mumbai to stage a repeat of November 26, 2008 attacks. However, like the pictures of the three men released on Wednesday, they too turned up at the Gulberg police station in Lahore to report that they were businessmen, and not terrorists.
**
**On Wednesday, Indian law enforcement agencies had released pictures to the media for three out of five suspected terrorists, believed to have snuck into Mumbai via the sea last week. Indian intelligence agencies had issued a warning, after which a high level meeting was called by the Police commissioner and the city had been put on high alert on Sunday.
**
**However, once the colour pictures of the suspects made it to the media on Wednesday, the alleged terrorists, watched their faces splash across television and the internet while they tended to their mobile retail business at Lahore’s popular Hafeez Centre. Perturbed at being labeled ‘terrorist’, they approached the Gulberg police station to claim their innocence. Of the three, two said they had never had a passport issued to them, let alone travel internationally.
**
When pictures of their remaining two “accomplices” were released late on Friday, two more perturbed individuals, Amjad Ali Khan and Nadeem Malik emerged from Hafeez Centre.

Khan resident of Dharampura, Lahore is an employee at a mobile store. Malik is a resident of Gwalmandi and operates a business of used cell phones. Both have been working in Hafeez Centre for more than four years.

The President of traders of Hafeez Centre, Fayyaz Butt while talking to The Express Tribune said that the Indian intelligence agencies and media, due to unknown reasons, has tried to prove that these five men, belonging to Lahore, were terrorists.

He added that both Khan and Malik were receiving repeated calls from Indian numbers, enquiring about their links with terrorist organisations.

Malik said that he had been working in Hafeez Centre for the past eight years. While he owned a passport, he never had a desire to visit India, or to apply for a visa to the neighbouring country.

Ali_Syed · May 11, 2012, 10:32pm

Re: ‘To-be-Mumbai-terrorists’ emerge from Lahore’s Hafeez Centre

Shamraz_Khan · May 12, 2012, 6:49am

Indian intelligence blunder sparks anger in Pakistan, jokes at home

Idiots. This reminds of mass murder of Sikhs in Kashmir when Bill Clinton visited India & it was blamed on Pakistan. Later on we found that it was setup by Indian army in Kashmir & poor Sikhs were murdered in cold blood by Indian army.

Indian intelligence blunder sparks anger in Pakistan, jokes at home - The Washington Post

Indian intelligence blunder sparks anger in Pakistan, jokes at home

By Rama Lakshmi, Published: May 11

NEW DELHI — India’s intelligence agency sparked outrage in Pakistan and self-deprecatory jokes at home this week after it listed ordinary Pakistani shopkeepers as terrorists on a mission to attack some of India’s landmark institutions.

The Research and Analysis Wing, India’s premier intelligence agency, issued an advisory to state governments in which it said that five trained militants from Pakistan’s banned Lashkar-i-Taiba group had sneaked into India with fake identities to attack a nuclear facility, oil refinery, seaport and defense academy.

On Wednesday, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left New Delhi after delivering some tough comments on Pakistan, Mumbai police released the photographs of the five men.

Within hours, a Pakistani television channel reported that two of the three men on the list were shopkeepers and one was a guard, all living in Lahore, and that none of them had ever left Pakistan.

“India bungles while Pakistan laughs,” the Mail Today newspaper said of the embarrassing blunder. Twitter buzzed with jokes about the Research and Analysis Wing, with some tweeters offering their own lists to the agency.

The incident prompted anger and derision in Pakistan. Muhammad Fayyaz Butt, the head of a traders association for an electronics market where two of the men own shops, condemned India’s “irresponsible and biased attitude.”

On Thursday, the two shopkeepers went to the Lahore High Court, seeking protection from possible action against them by India.

Indian Law Minister Salman Khurshid offered an explanation to reporters in New Delhi on Friday. “We can’t be too careful,” he said. “We have had some bad experiences in the past. And therefore to err on the right side is something we can’t complain about.”

It was not the first time India has made such a faux pas. A year ago, the government released a most-wanted list of 50 Indian fugitives who it claimed were hiding in Pakistan. Two men on the list turned out to be in India, one of them a prisoner in a Mumbai jail.

rangoli · May 12, 2012, 10:00am