Abdul Subhan Qureshi
Encyclopedia
Abdul Subhan Qureshi (born 1972) is a suspected bomb-maker and one of the most wanted terrorists in India
(he has been called India's Bin Laden). He is suspected to be associated with the Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI), and is thought to have been responsible for participating in the Bangalore
, Ahmedabad
and Delhi
bombings. He is also a suspect in the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
.
He is more commonly known as Tauqeer and is believed to be the signer in the Indian Mujahideen
terror email as al-Arabi.
in Uttar Pradesh
migrated to Mumbai
. He finished his SSC (class X) from an institution run by an Islamic trust in Byculla in Mumbai
. He graduated from the Antonio DeSouza High School in 1988, obtaining a good Secondary School Certificate with 76.6% marks. His sisters, Shabana, Asma and Safia, have MA Degrees, his eldest sister Farha has been a columnist in an Urdu newspaper "Inquilab" & an independent novelist, his youngest sister Hafsa, studies at Sophia college, Mumbai and none of his three well-educated brothers Imran, Numaan & Salman appear to have never been associated with SIMI.
In 1992 he began studies at the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in Navi Mumbai
. In 1995, he obtained a Diploma
in Industrial Electronics, and got a part-time job at String Computers in Mazgaon. In 1996, he earned a specialised software maintenance training from the CMS Institute in Marol.
He joined Radical Solutions, a computer firm in the Fort area in South Mumbai in November 1996. According to his co-workers, Qureshi was an exceptional worker. In just three years, his salary was quadrupled. He handled several major independent projects, including an intranet for Bharat Petro-Chemicals carried out by Wipro
in 1999, and then joined Datamatics.
In a 26 March 2001 letter, he resigned with a letter stating “I wish to inform you, that I have decided to devote one complete year to pursue religious and spiritual matters.”
Tauqeer married Arifa from Bandra in 1999 (or 2000). They moved to a flat at Mira Road in south Mumbai’s Dongri area in 2000. On 21 August 2001, he participated in a SIMI press conference. He was video-recorded sitting beside Safdar Nagori
.
In 2006, he is said to have severed contact with even his wife and three children, One son & two daughter named Hanzala, Zainab and Zaweria nicknamed "Juhi".
Arrested SIMI leader Safdar Nagori
, has told police that he knew Qureshi and they had attended a religious function in Delhi in 2000. Nagori has also told them that Qureshi attended a two-day SIMI meeting in Karnataka's Hubli and another SIMI meet at a Kerala forest in October 2007.
.
Police sources told The Hindu that he participated in the October,1999 SIMI conference where Sheikh Yasin, the head of the Hamas
and the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami
chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad
, were among those who delivered speeches through a telephone network.
In SIMI’s 1999 Aurangabad convention which Qureshi is believed to have helped organize, many of the speeches delivered by delegates are reported to have been inflammatory. “Islam is our nation, not India,” said Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad, one of the SIMI-linked Lashkar operatives arrested in 2005 for smuggling in military-grade explosives and assault rifles for a supposed planned series of attacks in Gujarat.
Qureshi is thought to have been one of the principal organisers of SIMI’s last public conference in 2001 where SIMI leaders told the estimated 25,000 members that the time had come for Indian Muslims to launch an armed Jihad
which would have the establishment of a Caliphate as its final aim.
It is believed that finding Qureshi - as well as individuals like Qayamuddin Kapadia, the missing Vadodara based computer-graphics artist - could be instrumental in preventing the next big terror attack.
The family lawyer Mubin Solkar however stated that the family does not wish to defend him and will cooperate with the administration.
The press conference included representatives of Ekta Welfare Association, Maharashtra Legal Aid Forum and Movement for Peace and Justice, and 17 Muslim organisations (including Editor-Publisher of The Hindustan Daily Urdu Sarfaraz Arzu). The Muslim organisations termed the charges against him as a conspiracy theory by the Sangh Parivar
.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(he has been called India's Bin Laden). He is suspected to be associated with the Students Islamic Movement of India
Students Islamic Movement of India
The Students Islamic Movement of India is an Islamic student organization that was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in April 1977. The stated mission of SIMI is the ‘liberation of India’ from Western materialistic cultural influence and to convert its Muslim society to live according to Muslim...
(SIMI), and is thought to have been responsible for participating in the Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
and Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
bombings. He is also a suspect in the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capital. The bombs were set off in pressure cookers on trains...
.
He is more commonly known as Tauqeer and is believed to be the signer in the Indian Mujahideen
Indian Mujahideen
Indian Mujahideen is a terrorist group based in India, known for carrying out several attacks against civilian targets in India....
terror email as al-Arabi.
Background
His working-class parents, Father Haji Usmaan Qureshi & Mother Zubeida Begum Qureshi who hailed from RampurRampur, Uttar Pradesh
Rampur is a city and a municipality located in Rampur District in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Rampur district is located at Longitude 78-0-54 to 69-0-28 East and Latitude 28-25 to 29-10 North and spans an area of 2,367 km².It also gave its name to a former princely state of British...
in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
migrated to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. He finished his SSC (class X) from an institution run by an Islamic trust in Byculla in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. He graduated from the Antonio DeSouza High School in 1988, obtaining a good Secondary School Certificate with 76.6% marks. His sisters, Shabana, Asma and Safia, have MA Degrees, his eldest sister Farha has been a columnist in an Urdu newspaper "Inquilab" & an independent novelist, his youngest sister Hafsa, studies at Sophia college, Mumbai and none of his three well-educated brothers Imran, Numaan & Salman appear to have never been associated with SIMI.
In 1992 he began studies at the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai is a Planned Satellite City on the west coast of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was developed in 1972 as a twin city of Mumbai, and is the largest planned city on the planet, with under the jurisdiction of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and a total area of . Navi Mumbai...
. In 1995, he obtained a Diploma
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
in Industrial Electronics, and got a part-time job at String Computers in Mazgaon. In 1996, he earned a specialised software maintenance training from the CMS Institute in Marol.
He joined Radical Solutions, a computer firm in the Fort area in South Mumbai in November 1996. According to his co-workers, Qureshi was an exceptional worker. In just three years, his salary was quadrupled. He handled several major independent projects, including an intranet for Bharat Petro-Chemicals carried out by Wipro
Wipro
Wipro Limited formally Western India Products Limited is a global IT services and consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, India. As of 2011, Wipro is the second largest IT services company by turnover in India and employs more than 120,000 people worldwide as of March 2011...
in 1999, and then joined Datamatics.
In a 26 March 2001 letter, he resigned with a letter stating “I wish to inform you, that I have decided to devote one complete year to pursue religious and spiritual matters.”
Tauqeer married Arifa from Bandra in 1999 (or 2000). They moved to a flat at Mira Road in south Mumbai’s Dongri area in 2000. On 21 August 2001, he participated in a SIMI press conference. He was video-recorded sitting beside Safdar Nagori
Safdar Nagori
Safdar Nagori is the current leader of the outlawed Islamist terrorist group, the Students Islamic Movement of India.Nagori, now in his late 30s, was born in a prominent and respected Pathan Sunni Muslim family in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh which had a history of service in the Police Force and...
.
In 2006, he is said to have severed contact with even his wife and three children, One son & two daughter named Hanzala, Zainab and Zaweria nicknamed "Juhi".
Arrested SIMI leader Safdar Nagori
Safdar Nagori
Safdar Nagori is the current leader of the outlawed Islamist terrorist group, the Students Islamic Movement of India.Nagori, now in his late 30s, was born in a prominent and respected Pathan Sunni Muslim family in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh which had a history of service in the Police Force and...
, has told police that he knew Qureshi and they had attended a religious function in Delhi in 2000. Nagori has also told them that Qureshi attended a two-day SIMI meeting in Karnataka's Hubli and another SIMI meet at a Kerala forest in October 2007.
Police claims
According to the Mumbai police investigators, by 1998, he appears to have been a committed SIMI activist. He was charged that year with defacing public property by pasting SIMI posters. Later, he edited SIMI’s magazine, the Islamic Voice, from New DelhiNew Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
.
Police sources told The Hindu that he participated in the October,1999 SIMI conference where Sheikh Yasin, the head of the Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad
Qazi Hussain Ahmad
Qazi Hussain Ahmad was the third president of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, a major political party in Pakistan...
, were among those who delivered speeches through a telephone network.
In SIMI’s 1999 Aurangabad convention which Qureshi is believed to have helped organize, many of the speeches delivered by delegates are reported to have been inflammatory. “Islam is our nation, not India,” said Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad, one of the SIMI-linked Lashkar operatives arrested in 2005 for smuggling in military-grade explosives and assault rifles for a supposed planned series of attacks in Gujarat.
Qureshi is thought to have been one of the principal organisers of SIMI’s last public conference in 2001 where SIMI leaders told the estimated 25,000 members that the time had come for Indian Muslims to launch an armed Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
which would have the establishment of a Caliphate as its final aim.
It is believed that finding Qureshi - as well as individuals like Qayamuddin Kapadia, the missing Vadodara based computer-graphics artist - could be instrumental in preventing the next big terror attack.
Defense by Family
On 17 September 2008, his family held a press-conference in Mumbai. His mother Zubeda Qureshi claimed that she had not seen her son in 7 years and did not think he was involved. She said if he was guilty, he should be hanged.- "We know Subhaan is innocent. We want him to come forward and clear his name".
The family lawyer Mubin Solkar however stated that the family does not wish to defend him and will cooperate with the administration.
The press conference included representatives of Ekta Welfare Association, Maharashtra Legal Aid Forum and Movement for Peace and Justice, and 17 Muslim organisations (including Editor-Publisher of The Hindustan Daily Urdu Sarfaraz Arzu). The Muslim organisations termed the charges against him as a conspiracy theory by the Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...
.
See also
- 13 May 2008 Jaipur bombings13 May 2008 Jaipur bombingsThe 13 May 2008 Jaipur bombings were a series of nine synchronized bomb blasts that took place within a span of fifteen minutes at locations in Jaipur, the capital city of the Indian state of Rajasthan, and a tourist destination. A tenth bomb was found and defused. Official reports confirm 63 dead...
- 2008 Ahmedabad bombings
- 2008 Delhi bombings
- Safdar NagoriSafdar NagoriSafdar Nagori is the current leader of the outlawed Islamist terrorist group, the Students Islamic Movement of India.Nagori, now in his late 30s, was born in a prominent and respected Pathan Sunni Muslim family in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh which had a history of service in the Police Force and...