Pune: Who could have believed that a person working in an MNC and earning Rs 19 lakh annually would be behind the terror emails sent a few minutes before the blasts?

This is what took the police by surprise when they lay their hands on Mohammad Mansoor Asgar Peerbhoy alias Munawar alias Mannu. According to the police, Mansoor, a 31-year-old resident of Pune, was brilliant in his studies and had been working in a multi-national company since 2003 as a principal software engineer.

"He had visited the United States several times for work and his family could not believe that he was into terrorism," said a crime branch officer. He said Mansoor regularly visited mosques in Pune. "In 2006, Indian Mujahideen (IM) leader Riyaz Bhatkal spotted Mansoor for the first time in one of the mosques in Pune. Bhatkal asked one of his deputies Asif Bashir Shaikh (also arrested) to get Mansoor indoctrinated into the IM."

Asif, a mechanical engineer himself, gained Mansoors confidence over a period of time, said the officer. "Mansoor was brainwashed gradually. Asif showed him CDs of Godhra riots, Palestinian and Iraq wars. Mansoor went on to become one of the key brains behind sending the terror emails at the behest of Indian Mujahideen," the officer said.

Mansoor later started an organisation called The Quran Foundation. This organisation too was used as a front for various other activities of the IM. Mansoor, however, led a normal life taking care of his family.
Source : DNA