Clinton Watson Taylor, who you may remember had me on his radio show, has this piece up at the American Spectator. What is so interesting about this is that I had never heard of Ijju Sheikh until today, but I should have. India is our natural ally in the GWOT. India has been fighting Islamist forces since the day it was granted indepence. Both Pakistan and Bangledesh were carved out of India and then largely ethnically cleansed of their Hindu and other religious minority communities. Unfortunately, though, the Cold War imperetive forced the U.S. to become allies with Pakistan:

While the recent arrest of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Al Qaeda's number-three man, is a significant victory in the war on terror, another largely overlooked arrest gives even more reason to rejoice. Ijju Sheikh, a fugitive suspect in one of India's worst terrorist attacks, was arrested in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) on April 29. His capture shows that the noose is tightening on a sinister transnational mafia that both supports al Qaeda's existence, and imperils India's.

On March 12, 1993, a series of explosions ripped through the streets of Mumbai, killing 257 Indians and injuring 713. The serial attack, presaging Al Qaeda's coordinated-bombing modus operandi, involved nearly simultaneous detonation of car-bombs across the city in crowded bazaars and near major hotels and Mumbai's stock exchange. While India is no stranger to political violence, the attack has been retroactively dubbed "India's 9-11" for its shock and devastation.

Ijju Sheikh stands accused of smuggling the RDX explosives used in the bombing. Once a hotelier and sarpanch (city council chief) with political connections, Sheikh fled to Dubai after the bombing and only recently snuck back into India. He is also accused of smuggling gold and weapons, as well as being a top henchman to international gangster and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:24 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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