Goa terrorist involved in hawala deal Mid Day Mayuresh Pawar March 13, 2006
Pakistan-trained terrorist Tariq Jalal flanked by Goa police personnel on Saturday A Mumbai-based hawala dealer gave him Rs 1.5 lakh sent from Pakistan in three installments of Rs 50,000 each, confessed Tariq Jalal (28), the alleged terrorist who was arrested in Goa on Saturday. Jalal, who is allegedly from the Tehrique-ul-Mujahiddin terror outfit, affiliated with Laskhar-e-Taiba, revealed this to two teams from central intelligence agencies. Terrorist targets Jalal also disclosed that he had planned to target India's third biggest port, Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), Indian Oil Corporation's oil tankers, Dabolim International Airport and Madgaon railway station. The MPT also houses the headquarters of the Indian Coast Guard. "Though he was entrusted only with couriering the explosives, he had meticulously surveyed the entire state after setting up his base in Goa," said Ujjwal Mishra, deputy inspector general of police. Jalal came to Goa nine months ago and lived in a rented flat at Navelim in Madgaon. He often visited Mumbai, Delhi, Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. Tariq holds a bachelor's degree in physics and has done a course in radiology. In 2000, Jalal met a man, identified only as Farooq, in Srinagar, who introduced him to militancy. He was trained for over two years in Pakistan and was later sent to Bangladesh and Nepal, according to the police. Escape Jammu & Kashmir police arrested Jalal in 2002, but he managed to escape. The police recovered two kilos of RDX, two Russian-made handgrenades, two electronic detonators, two cameras, two mobile phones and a compact disc from him on Saturday. ~(^^)~ Avelino