The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police has been pulled up by the Union home ministry for going public on evidence of the cross-border terror links of two Mumbai residents who were arrested on Saturday.
The ATS got a wrap on its knuckles for giving the media more details of the probe than necessary after the trail to a Pakistani handler went cold, a source said today.
The ATS had said that the phone calls received by the two terror suspects arrested on charges of planning attacks in Mumbai had been traced to Karachi in Pakistan.
The two men were also associated with fugitive gangster Dawood
Ibrahim, the ATS had claimed.
The home ministry conveyed its displeasure to the ATS for having compromised the investigation by revealing that the two men were in touch with a person in Pakistan identified as 'Chacha' (uncle).
ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi had said yesterday that a preliminary inquiry had suggested that the duo was getting instructions from someone called 'Chacha' in Pakistan.
A senior home ministry official quipped, "Uncle is no more... we lost Chachaji." Central intelligence agencies have been unable to pick up his signals again.
The official termed the revelation of the role of "Chacha" as a "real hit on the head for us".
Abdul Latif alias Guddu (29) and Riyaz Ali alias Rehan (23), residents of suburban Bandra and Dahisar, respectively, were arrested near the Matunga railway station in central Mumbai on Saturday.
Both had conducted a recce of three targets — the headquarters of public-sector petroleum company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Thakkar Mall in Borivli, and Mangaldas Market — and were planning to carry out attacks, including setting them on fire, Raghuvanshi had said.
