Yahoo! to help Mumbai cops in terror probe | 20 held

YAHOO TO HELP: Yahoo will provide vital information to assist the Mumbai police in terror probe.

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New Delhi: Web giant Yahoo Corporation which used to employ one of the alleged terrorists of terror group Indian Mujahideen, has said it will cooperate with the Mumbai police, after its employee was arrested for allegedly sending terror e-mails for the Indian Mujahideen.

Yahoo will provide vital information about the accused of sending terror emails on behalf of the Indian Mujahideen, Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy.

“We are very concerned about these events and will fully cooperate with the law enforcement agencies as required,” said a Yahoo! India spokesperson in an official statement from the web giant.

Thirty one-year-old Peerbhoy — who was arrested with three others by the Mumbai police on Monday — has alarmed security agencies because he was a brilliant student and extremely well-paid.

Peerbhoy is also reported to have visited the United States several times in the course of his work. The other two out of three suspects - Mobin Kader Shaikh and Asif Bashruddin Shaikh - are also software professionals and had allegedly hacked unsecure wifi networks to send the terror mails.

The four were part of the media unit of the terror outfit which had sent

threatening emails using wireless internet connections in the city around the time the serial blasts were carried out at Ahmedabad and New Delhi, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.

Peerbhoy was a computer engineer working in an MNC in Pune, Shaikh was employed in an IT firm and Shaikh a qualified mechanical engineer.

The four allegedly came to the city on five occasions prior to sending the first e-mail on July 26 in order to find unsecured wireless Internet sites, Maria said.

They would roam in a car to sites where wireless internet was available and then send the emails at designated timings, he said.

The police have seized a laptop, six computers, a radio frequency detector, a wireless router, anesthetic injections and tablets from the trio, Gaffoor said.

Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, the driver of the vehicle in which they travelled to send the threatening emails, has also been arrested.

"Chaudhary had taken a house in Surat on rent under a fictitious name prior to planting bombs there," Maria said.

He is also alleged to have participated in the serial blasts in Hyderabad in August 2007 and planted a bomb which did not explode, he said.

Meanwhile, 20 suspected members of terror Indian Mujahideen (IM), who planned blasts here during the ongoing Navratri celebrations, were arrested in connection with a string of explosions in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

Fifteen out of the 20 arrested accused are Asif Bashir Shaikh, Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy, Mubin Kadar Shaikh, Mohammed Atiq Mohammed Iqbal, Dastagir Phiroz Mujawar, Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, Anique Shafique Sayed, Majid Akhtar Shaikh, Yasir Anis Sayed, Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash, Fazal-e-Rehman Mus Khan Durani, Ahmed Bawa Abubakr, Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Javed Mohammed Ali and Sayed Mohammed Naushad.

These persons were arrested between September 28 and October 5 at locations in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, Maria said.

(Inputs from PTI)