Blooper in Most Wanted list to Pakistan, BJP slams govt

India’s home ministry was left egg-faced on Monday and a probe ordered with the discovery that at least one among the 50 most wanted fugitives’ names sent to Pakistan to trace in that country actually resides in Thane and attends court regularly for his trial in a 2003 train blast case.

The goof-up triggered strong reactions from the Opposition, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calling the mistake the highest level of incompetence of the home ministry.

Wazhul Kamar Khan’s name was sent to Pakistan recently by the home ministry of India along with 49 others that included gangster and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.

But Khan was traced to Thane district’s Waghle Estate living with his family and out in bail.
He was arrested in 2010 for his alleged involvement in the Mulund train blast of 2003 in which 11 people were killed and many injured.

“I am living here and attending court regularly. The local police also knows me,” Khan told TV channels.

Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said he is looking into the matter while Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said the mistake was not his.

“I cannot comment. I did not prepare that list,” he said in Agartala,adding that there is only one name and he cannot say how it happened.

“How can I say?” he said, adding that while preparing a list of 50 one can go wrong.

“Possible there could be error or there could be two people in same name,” he said.

“I will check,” he told reporters in Agartala at a function he was attending.

The Opposition was scathing in its attack on the government.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the lapse is monumental and it embarrassed the entire country.

“Why should imcompetence of the home ministry embarass the country like this. The Home Ministry has risen to the optimum of its incompetence,” said Jaitley, adding that the person who caused this embarrassment should be found and hold accountable.

Speaking to TV channels, Khan’s wife said they had never been to Pakistan or anyone ever came to visit them from Pakistan. She claimed that her husband is innocent and attends court.

Khan is also an accused in other blasts in 2003 at Vile-Parle and Ghatkopar besides one in Mumbai Central a year back.

India’s home ministry on May 11 made public a list of 50 most wanted men hiding in Pakistan with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed featuring it as some of the top terrorists enjoying the protection of its neighbour.

Khan’s name was also on the list.

India’s home secretary G K Pillai had handed over this list to his Pakistani counterpart Qamar Zaman Choudhary in March this year.

With Pakistan cornered over the discovery of Osama bin Laden in its territory after the US Navy Seals and CIA operatives killed him in a covert operation on May 2, India is now better positioned to tell before the world how terrorists targeting India are finding a safe haven in Pakistan.

But the blooper can now be used by Pakistan to charge India of ham-handed approach to tracking terrorists and always blaming it on them.

At least 21 of those in the list are from the Dawood group. They included Anees Ibrahim, Tiger Memon and Chhota Shakeel.

26/11 mastermind Hafeez Saeed tops the list.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed leads Jama’at-ud-Da’wah, a charity thought to be a cover organisation for militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The list of 50 also includes Maulana Masood Azhar, the mastermind of the Kandahar hijacking in December 1999.