The two cars which were used in the Ahmedabad terror attacks may have been ferried to their “destinations” by terrorist operatives themselves. Anti-terrorist squad (ATS) officials said that car thieves may not have been “used” at all to smuggle the cars out of Navi Mumbai between July 7 and 15.
“We are probing if terrorist elements themselves took the cars from Navi Mumbai to Ahmedabad and Surat,” said senior Maharashtra ATS officer Param Vir Singh.
The fact that the cars could have been taken to Ahmedabad and Surat by the terrorists is indicative of the well-conceived nature of the attacks and their multi-city dimensions.
Sources said it also points to the fact that the blueprints of the attacks on different cities were drawn at almost the same time. These terrorists resort to networking before indulging in any large-scale tactical operation.
“Often the grassroots terror operatives or those slightly better-placed in the group hierarchy tend to shun opting for readymade local support. This is mostly to overcome an operational security blunder which might lead to the revelation of the plot,” said an intelligence official.
The ATS officials said they are yet to get any clue since they did not capture images of those who had driven those four cars from the CCTV images installed at the Thane toll naka. The two explosives-laden WagonRs were traced to Surat while the other two vehicles - which caused the twin explosions at LG Hospital and Civil Hospital - were blown off in the Gujarat capital.
Maharashtra ATS officials said that members of two hibernating cells — one in Thane and the other in Navi Mumbai — may have been “activated” to facilitate movement of the logistics (which included ferrying the cars) to Ahmedabad and Surat.
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