I am not a terrorist, I was misled: Qureshi

“After God, I have faith in you,” Shahnawaz Qureshi, 48, who was convicted for planting explosives at Plaza cinema by the TADA court on Monday, told Judge PD Kode on Tuesday.

Stating that advantage was taken of his sentiments in the name of the Babri Masjid, the illiterate butcher, who worked in the Deonar abattoir, said: “I am not a terrorist. My house was burnt during the 1992 riots. I was misled.”

Convicted for undergoing weapon training in Pakistan, Quershi confessed that he was taken to Dubai on the pretext of a trip. From there he was taken in an aeroplane to another place, which he was told was Pakistan. “We were there for four to five days. Training cannot be given in such a short time,” he reasoned out.

However, in his confession, which was upheld by Judge Kode as “true and voluntary” despite a retraction, he gave details of his training in Pakistan. Excerpts:

“We boarded a 4pm flight from Dubai and landed at Islamabad airport at 7 pm. We were met by two persons who told us to follow them and got us out of the airport without any checking. One of them was called Ahmedbhai. They took our passports and tickets and then took us to a bungalow in a big jeep. After tea and snacks we were taken in vehicles to a jungle. There were three tents there. Others like Javed Chikna, Usman and Parvez were already there. The next day our training began. We were taught to use a pistol, AK-56 rifle, how to throw hand grenades, make petrol and RDX bombs and fix timers and detonators.

Two days later Tiger Memon came there and also underwent training. We did target practice and were made to throw two real hand grenades. Later we were shown how to use a rocket launcher. After the training we returned to Islamabad, where we were taken to Faisal Masjid and Murree for sightseeing.

Two days later we were back at the Islamabad airport, where we were handed our passports, tickets and boarding passes. We took the 9:30 am flight and were back in Dubai by noon.