[Reader-list] Hizbul bets on My Name is Khan

[Pawan Durani]

Source : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hizbul-bets-on-my-name-is-khan/592887/0

No matter if an Asperger’s Syndrome-afflicted Rizwan Khan goes on to
actually help nab a terror mastermind during his self-vindication
journey through the reels of My Name is Khan, the movie has found
endorsement from an unlikely quarter: the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

At least, this is what the Gujarat Anti Terror Squad (ATS) has
stumbled on, while interrogating the HM’s alleged terror agent Bashir
Ahmed Baba, suspected to have been scouting in Gujarat for
impressionable recruits for terror training in HM facilities in
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The 32-year-old Bashir, known in his home state Kashmir as the Pepsi
Bomber (for his alleged expertise in turning empty cans of soft drinks
into explosive devices), had been asked by his HM handler in PoK ,
Bilal Shera, to use the movie as an indoctrination tool.

ATS sources say Bashir was specifically told to use the movie to
propagate the idea that Muslim youth across the world were perennially
facing humiliation and derision, and they need to come together for
jihad.

Baba was nabbed on March 13 from Anand, while using the alleged cover
of a medical camp trainer as he went about getting a network together
to recruit young men for the HM. Sources said the ATS recovered from
Bashir a ticket for the Shah Rukh Khan movie at the Fun Republic
Theatre in Ahmedabad and grilled him on it.

Bashir, the sources said, confessed that he had gone to see the movie
as instructed by his boss in PoK, Bilal Shera. After watching the
movie, he made a call to Bilal who asked him to describe its content
and what he thought of it.

According to ATS sources, Bashir told Bilal that it was a “nice movie,
Shahrukh Khan acted well.” Bilal snubbed him and told him that he was
sent to watch the movie to realise how it conveyed that Muslims were
being subjected to atrocities and discrimination all over the world.
The handler asked Bashir to get as many young Muslims as possible to
watch the movie and drive home the point.

ATS sources added that following his handler’s instructions, Bashir
focussed on at least three specific areas in Ahmedabad _ Law Gardern,
Lal Darwaza and Kankaria _ to take groups of young men to watch the
movie. Sources also added that Bashir even had got pirated CDs of the
movie made and handed them to some of them for distribution.

Gujarat ATS chief Ajay Tomar declined to discuss the issue, insisting
it would hamper the ATS probe into Bashir’s links. “I would not like
to say anything on this, it will harm our investigation. We will let
you know about this at an appropriate time,” he added.

Tomar, however, added that the ATS had not found if the movie’s CDs
were actually distributed.