Arson is the new stepping stone for recruitment into the Jehadi ranks. Aspiring terrorists have been advised by their masters in Pakistan to use easily available petrol or kerosene for incendiary activities before they can be trusted with high explosives.
This has been revealed during the interrogation of two people arrested here recently -- Abdul Latif and Riyaz Ali --who surprised security agencies by admitting that they were planning to set fire to offices of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Mumbai using low-tech material like kerosene oil and petrol.
Sources privy to the details of the investigation said the duo had struck a deal with a kerosene dealer in the suburb of the city as pressure was building on them to carry out the
attack and prove their calibre to join the jehadi ranks.
The duo, who were in constant touch with a person identified as "uncle" from Pakistan, had been instructed to carry out a subversive act before they were taken to Pakistan for further training and indoctrination.
The duo, who are at presently in judicial custody, were arrested after their telephone calls were monitored by central security agencies last month.
This move of initiating people into terrorism by using arson as a first step, may not be new but was innovative, says former Intelligence Bureau Chief Ajit Kumar Doval.
"It has been constant endeavour of Pakistan's ISI and Jehadi groups based there to take security agencies here by surprise. In this direction, arson may be yet another innovative way which may not have succeeded," in this case at
least, he said.
Acting on a tip off by Central Security Agencies, the 29-year-old Latif and 23-year-old Ali, residents of Bandra and Dahisar -- were arrested from near Matunga railway station in
central Mumbai. The duo had reconnoitred three possible targets -- ONCG's Mumbai-based headquarters, Thakkar Mall and Malgaldas Market -- and were planning to sabotage them or set
them on fire.
The two had been pressing their handlers to send them high explosives, but they were asked by the persons across the border to prove their bonafides by using low tech petrol and kerosene to create major fires.
Intelligence officials also said that this advice to take recourse to petrol and kerosene may be the result of the difficulty in transporting explosives at a time of heightened
police vigilance.