“The Da Lakhvi Code” continues ……

Another email dated 7 February from rashid32XXXX@ hotmail.com to stupaXX@hotmail.com read:

My dear darling I am so happy that you love me and you are made for me. You also know that I love you and that you are most important to me in this world. Dear brother Muzzamil salam wale kum unko maine tehraa diya hai. Yeh college wala ilaqa hai. Bhir bhar main hai. Sab thik hai. Aur koi baat hogi to message bhej dena. Chachaji ko salaam arz karna, aapka bhai [I have given him thirteen, I have put him up somewhere. This is an area full of colleges and there is a lot of activity here. Everything else is fine. If anything important comes up, I will let you know.] I love you and you love me. I will die if you are not in my life. I will get flowers for you everyday. I will give you lot of love.’

The contents of four other emails sent earlier—dated 28 January, 1 February, 3 February and 5 February 2003— from four different cyber cafés were more or less in the same vein. However, veiled mention of money transfers, hiring of hiding places and references to one ‘chachaji’ (who in all probability was Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a top leader of LeT and the supreme commander of operations in Kashmir) were worrisome. Indications of an imminent terror attack in or around Delhi seemed concealed in these messages. The idea behind this tactic seemed to be that if the emails were intercepted, they could be passed over as innocuous love letters—a modus operandi often adopted by terror groups. Before proceeding with the story, a word or two about Lashkar- e-Taiba—which means army of the pure—and its top leader Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, presumably the mastermind behind the terror plan.

To be continued ......