It was I who brought the terrorists to Delhi. I did it for money, not religion, said Parliament attack plotter Afzal Guru in his first interview after arrest
It was chilly as usual in December 2001, but the national Capital was highly charged in the aftermath of the most defining terror attack launched on the 13th day of the month. The seat of political power had been attacked during the Winter Session.
I was covering the crime beat and was going through the grind as usual to find my "big story" of the day following the attack.
I still remember with crystal clarity that it was December 20 and a bunch of journalists, including me, was idling around the Delhi Police Special Office in Lodhi Colony looking for our "exclusive" story.
Perhaps, destiny was smiling on me that day as DCP (special cell) Ashok Chand allowed me (from print media) and Shams Tahir Khan (from Aaj Tak) to talk to their "prize catch and co-conspirator in the Parliament attack case" - Mohammed Afzal Guru.
My thoughts flashed back to the 15 minutes I managed to spend with Guru that day the moment I heard the news of his hanging on Saturday morning.
Guru was cold in his response, remorseless and defiant even as he was chained and constantly under police monitoring. He admitted in the very first minute that his conscience did not prick him even once before the attack.
Guru said, "Had I thought what I was doing was wrong, I would not have done it. Had I not been caught, I would probably have gone on to help some other terrorist group for money."
Remorseless
His next statement was enough to make a headline: "It was I who brought the terrorists to Delhi." As the talk progressed, I got more engrossed in reading the psyche of the "terrorist". Guru went on: "It was not religion that motivated me to help the terrorists.
I am a businessman and I was helping them because of the money I was promised. I was to get Rs.50,000 for my role and a safe passage to Pakistan."
He told me "categorically" that the five terrorists involved in the attack were "a close-knit, highly motivated and fanatically religious group".
He aided and assisted them in carrying out the attack, he claimed, saying, "They used to pray regularly and were always focused on the attack. They spent much time in studying the photographs of Parliament they had downloaded from various websites."
Afzal opened up as the police left us alone.
"The suicide squad would regularly go over their attack strategy. They, however, used to hide behind the facade of a westernised lifestyle. They would wear western clothes. The idea was to mislead the intelligence agencies. While Mohammed appeared to be a well-read man, Rana could barely read or write. The others had not studied beyond secondary school," he said, adding that "no doubt Mohammed was the same man who had hijacked IC-814 to Kandahar in 1999 and killed Rupen Katyal (the only passenger murdered by the hijackers)".
Clean chit
On the day of the attack, the terrorists called Afzal and asked him to keep a watch on the proceedings on television. "I was at my sister-in-law's house in Azadpur at that time. There was a power failure there, so I could not watch the proceedings on television," he explained.
Afzal may have confessed about his role, but he gave a clean chit to his co-accused Shaukat Hussain and SAR Geelani, saying, "Their only crime is that they let me use their phones on a few occasions. At one point of time they were even reluctant to lend their vehicle to the terrorists," he claimed.
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It was I who brought the terrorists to Delhi. I did it for money, not religion, said Parliament attack plotter Afzal Guru in his first interview after arrest : North, News - India Today
^^ So much for innocent fruit seller
