– ASHRAT SHAFIQ ANSARI

 

* Ashrat (Ashraf) Shafiq Mohammad Ansari was born in 1976.  He was, originally, a zari (embroidery) worker, based in Surat, southern Gujarat. The INDIAN state of Gujarat is located North to Mumbai and Southern Gujarat is only few dozens km away from Mumbai.

Ashrat Shafiq Ansari moved to Mumbai and worked as a carpenter. There is nothing to suggest that he witnessed or suffered personally from the 2002 massacres of Muslims by Hindu mob in the western state of Gujarat, India. It is assumed that, like many other Muslims in India, he felt anger and frustration with the INDIAN Regime.  

In 10/2002 Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari was approached by Syed Hanif. who recruited him to an Islamic terror cell they called “Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force” and was, in fact, a Lashkar-e-Toiba cell.  

On Monday 08/25/2003 Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari planted the bomb that exploded near the entrance to Zaveri Bazaar. He was arrested on 09/02/2003 with Syed Hanif’s family as a prime suspect in the Mumbai Twin Bombings from Monday 08/25/2003.

The police revealed that the explosives used in the Mumbai Twin Bombings were prepared at the residences of Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari in Andheri East and Syed Hanif in Andheri (northwestern Mumbai). The two, who lived in poor tenements, made the explosives from gelatin sticks that are available locally since gelatin is used for quarrying and other controlled blasts.

In his investigation Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari admitted that he and his associate, Syed Hanif, belonged to the “Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force” a previously unknown group dedicated to avenging 2002 massacres of Muslims by Hindu mob in the western state of Gujarat, India. Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari also confessed of planting a bomb, with Farheen, the daughter of Syed Hanif, on a bus in the Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar on 07/28/2003, which killed three and injured 42, and to planting another bus bomb that failed to explode in December 2002.

The trial of all five suspects in committing the Mumbai Twin Bombings began in Mumbai on 06/29/2004. Today (04/2008) Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari and his associates were not sentenced yet.

On Monday 07/27/2009,  Ashrat  Shafiq Ansari was convicted as charged and, on Thursday 08/06/2009, he was sentenced to deat.  

* Related topics –
–
03/2008 -S.I.M.I LEADER SAFDAR NAGORI ARRESTED
PROFILE -ABDUL KARIM TUNDA
PROFILE -ABDUL REHMAN AYDEET   

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