Door to terror: Enter in Iran, exit in Pakistan

A mosque with its entry gate in Iran, in the Rituk border area, and a backdoor exit that opens into Pakistani territory was used by at least three Indian jihadis to enter Pakistan from Iran. Counter-terror agencies now suspect that this may be the route through which many more Indian jihadis may have entered Pakistan to enlist in the terror camps in the restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The revelations have come from the confessions of Mohammad Asif, the arrested India-head of Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent. Asif has told his interrogators that he and two associates, Mohammad Sharjeel Akhtar and Mohammad Rehan, had used this route. An associate told the three to go past the Iranian border checkpost on the pretext of visiting the mosque, which was located inside Iran but after the border post. “The back of the mosque opened inside Pakistan,” Asif has said.

After getting a three-month Iranian visa on the pretext of a pilgrimage to pay “ziyarat (obeisance)” at the tomb of the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomenei, the three were taken from Tehran airport by bus to Zahedan, then to Saravan, and from there to the Rituk border.

From a bus station at the Pakistan border, the next stop was Quetta, followed by a bus ride to Pishin and then a two-day drive to Ghazni in Afghanistan. The trio’s next stop was Azan Warsak in South Waziristan, Pakistan. They finally reached Miranshah in North Waziristan on July 22, 2013.

Asif, who spent about eight months at the training camp, met many youth, mainly from Karachi, but there were quite a few Indians too. Asif was arrested on December 14, 2015, by the Delhi police in the national capital.