10 February,2009 06:36 PM IST | | J Dey
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to Mumbai has given senior police officers a fresh impetus as plans are afoot to upgrade 26/11 terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Qasab's security fearing an attack from members of the underworld.
Senior police officers in Mumbai police are suspecting that Pakistani intelligence is plotting to use local gangsters to target Qasab and claim it was internal gangwar.
The development assumes significance in light of the fact Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) interception hints at the possibility that the underworld could target Lashkar-e-Toiba operative Qasab's during trials in Mumbai.
Foiling the plot is top on the priority of the Union Home Minister
Chidambaram.
Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Deven Bharti said it is very logical that Qasab could be targeted.
Details of the interception point to the involvement of gangster Dawood Ibrahim's right hand man Chhota Shakeel, added Bharti. Shakeel has been asked to prepare the blueprint of the attack on Qasab.
A senior crime branch official said Sakeel or Pau Takla, as he is known in underworld circles, is on the fringe of religious fanaticism. It is relatively easy for the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence senior operatives to motivate him into carryout the attack.
However, there are reasons to believe that the plot may be bared even before it could be executed. The crime branch has been successful in planting dozens of moles in the D Company.
The plot to kill Qasab comes at a time when Pakistan government is denying the fact that the 26/11 plot and training was held there.
Dawood and his second-in-command Shakeel are highly obligated to the ISI officials, who have provided and the duo and other members of the gang a safe sanctuary there.
