Computer engineer suspected as mastermind

ONE name that will be at the forefront of the investigators’ minds is that of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, a Mumbai-educated member of the Indian Mujahideen credited with masterminding several of the previous attacks.

Reports from India’s intelligence agencies claim he has been able to use his expertise as a computer engineer to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and to co-ordinate attacks.

His name also cropped up in the investigation into a series of bombings in Assam, with intelligence agencies claiming to have intercepted several congratulatory emails.

He first came to the attention of the authorities after the 2006 train bombings in Mumbai and was suspected of involvement in the Ahmedabad and Delhi attacks.

He is believed to have masterminded multiple bombings in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad earlier this year.

It is too soon to say who is responsible for the co-ordinated strikes by gunmen on India’s financial capital but Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, is the man Indian security services will be fingering.

Qureshi’s parents came from the poor, crowded northern state of Uttar Pradesh but migrated to the city.

He went on to get a diploma in industrial electronics in 1995, then a more specialised computing qualification in 1996 before joining a technology firm. From there, after handling several major projects, he moved to a larger computer company and then resigned suddenly, explaining that he wanted to “pursue religious and spiritual matters”.

Qureshi is not known to be linked with al-Qaida: his association is with the Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for the earlier bombings in other Indian cities and after the Delhi attack issued an explicit threat that Mumbai would be next.

While Qureshi is without doubt a prime suspect, various aspects of the Mumbai attack point to al-Qaida — the degree of co-ordination, the timing — Western intelligence has been expecting an atrocity of some sort while Barack Obama waits to take over in Washington — and the reports from eyewitnesses that the gunmen who attacked the Taj and the city’s other landmark hotel, the Oberoi, were specifically seeking out guests with American and British passports.