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Suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative T Naseer, who is in the custody of the Bangalore police, has made a stunning disclosure that fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim is the primary financer for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and also the Indian Mujahideen. Naseer says every terror strike carried out in India is funded by the D-gang (as the Dawood gang is known).
Naseer, who was initially proving to be a tough nut to crack, has slowly started opening up and among the many sensational disclosures he said that the Lashkar depends very heavily on Dawood for funds to carry out terror strikes.
Intelligence Bureau officials and interrogators told rediff.com that this could also mean that Dawood could also have raised funds for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Naseer told interrogators that the Pakistan-based Dawood has several of his men across India and in the Gulf involved in drug smuggling and printing and distributing fake currency. IB sources believe that Dawood has an understanding with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence by which he is permitted to carry out his drug/fake currency trade provided he finances terror activities.
Naseer told interrogators that C A M Basheer is a key man in the Dawood gang. Naseer said he was introduced to the LeT by Basheer. He says Basheer had told him that it was the D-gang which funds the LeT. He said that initially the funds were being used to run the Students Islamic Movement of India. However after the organisation was banned in India, they had find new ways of keeping the money coming in. Hence they decided to start a parallel organisation which they called the Indian Mujahideen. Naseer says that Basheer fled to the Gulf once Indian security agencies turned the heat on him. He continues to operate from there and channelises D-gang money to fund terror operations in India.
Naseer's role in the Coimbatore blasts in 1998 -- which targeted Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani -- is also getting clearer after he admitted that he was a member of the Al-Umma in Tamil Nadu. The banned outfit was blamed for the Coimbatore blasts. The Tamil Nadu police are in Bangalore to interrogate Naseer to get more details of his role in the blasts.