New Delhi: A criminal nexus between Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Dawood Ibrahim gang, which authorities suspect was instrumental in the killing of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, has come to notice.

During investigations into the case of Pandya and the underworld don deported from Dubai recently, security agencies have reportedly come across information that the alleged assassins of Pandya were among a batch of terrorist recruits sent to Pakistan in mid-2002 with the assistance of Sharief Khan alias Chota Dawood and his gang members, sources said.

The recruits were allegedly taken to another country where they were provided Pakistani passport by representatives of D-Company for their onward journey to Karachi, the sources said and added that they were trained by LeT before their clandestine return to the country in January 2003.

The assassins of Pandya were also tasked to attack the oil installations and other important buildings in Gujarat with the logistics of funds, weapons and explosives being entrusted to Chota Dawood and other members of D-Company.

The sources said that the "cosy nexus" had come to light after the statement of Anil Parab, a Dubai- based D-Company gangster, who was deported to New Delhi late last month.

He had told the investigators that the ISI had also placed groups of Kashmiri boys under Anees Ibrahim, brother of Dawood for "familiarisation" with the D-company infrastructure in India, the sources said. In return, Dawood takes cut from the narcotic and gun running operations worldwide from Pakistan's ISI, they said.

The sources said that LeT had gradually emerged as the principal sword arm of the ISI and was acquiring international dimensions that could reach to the same heights of al-Qaida.

The LeT, with the help of ISI operatives in the Gulf, has been allegedly "spotting" people in those areas. Some overseas camps in the Gulf have allegedly been set up to train people for carrying subversive activities in India, the sources said.

The first LeT cell noticed outside Pakistan was in a Gulf country that had recruited Shahid Ahmed Bakshi of Ahmedabad who was arrested in February 2002 in the national capital along with seven kilograms of RDX. He was tasked to target political leaders, the sources said.

The main accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast Imran Rehman Khan had stated that he had been summoned by Lashkar-e-Toiba's front organisation in another Gulf country to formulate a plan "to take revenge of Gujarat killings".

Imran, whose deportation was another feather in the cap of Central intelligence agencies, had stated LeT cadres had given him cassettes besides exhorting him to take revenge for killing of Muslims in Gujarat riots.

The sources said that the operatives of ISI and LeT used to get their arms and ammunition from the coast of Gujarat and Maharashtra, which have been traditionally stronghold of D-Company.

PTI