Terrorists Out Of Petty Goons

Black Friday, which was later made into a film, shows the vicious cycle: revenge for Babri triggered Mumbai blasts, which led to the Gujarat riots

- S. Hussain Zaidi

The Bombay blasts following the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition were an immediate excuse for perpetrating a deadly terrorist act in the country. The ISI in Pakistan had been waiting for a long time to unleash a terror offensive and the demolition of the mosque gave them the best opportunity to exploit the situation and orchestrate a diabolical attack, the worst-ever terrorist act anywhere in the world and not just India (9/11 was eight years away).

The ISI had the gullible Indian Muslims on their radar for a long time and they used the emotional upsurge after the mosque’s demolition to the hilt. There was no way the blasts could have been a spur-of-the-moment reaction to the Ayodhya mosque’s demolition by Muslims in India. Three months (after the Babri incident) is too less a time to execute such a major act of terrorism: serial blasts in 10 locations and grenade assault at two in quick succession. This had been planned for a long time from across the border.

The whole operation was professionally executed and precise; it had the mark of a well-oiled organisation like the ISI. Immediately after Babri, they started identifying Muslim youths in India who could be brainwashed and trained for a terror act of revenge. They landed eight tonnes of RDX on the Gujarat and Maharashtra coasts, a lot of which still remains undiscovered. This was the Porban­der consignment which landed with don Abu Salem, and a famous film actor whom I need not name. The other consignment of the explosives landed in the Maharashtra coast of Shekhadi, Mhasla and Srivardhan in Raigad district. These are the places from where Tiger Memon got the RDX and these were the spots managed by the underworld’s Dawood Ibrahim. So, the ISI had already planned that how much RDX they will send to India. They were only deciding how and when it should be sent and who will helm the offe­nsive. The Babri demolition decided the time.