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A militant legend - Ghazi Baba, a master of disguise: Deccan Herald
Jammu, Sept 23: Militants captured alive, capable of providing accurate inside information, are valuable assets to security forces. Thanks to a captured militant who provided appropriate clues about the guerilla leader`s modus operandi that Ghazi Baba met his end in Srinagar recently.
Jammu, Sept 23: Militants captured alive, capable of providing accurate inside information, are valuable assets to security forces. Thanks to a captured militant who provided appropriate clues about the guerilla leader’s modus operandi that Ghazi Baba met his end in Srinagar recently.
The militant’s interrogation yielded information about a particular mason who was involved in construction of a hideout. A Border Security Force (BSF) team led by three officers then located the hideout and positioned an outer cordon around the two-floored building, according to sources who requested anonymity for operational secrecy.
The BSF team stumbled on Ghazi Baba accidentally and was unprepared to confront him when they did so. To ensure that the security forces could not catch up with him easily, the guerilla leader would shift safe houses almost every other day. The entire encounter lasted no more than 15-20 minutes, the sources explained to Deccan Herald.
Ghazi Baba entered the hideout at 2 am and was killed an hour-and-a-half later. His bodyguard armed with a Russian Rashiv 5.54 mm rifle, opened fire on the BSF team, and was with his leader when he met his end.
Ghazi Baba’s hideout had a concealed entrance with a trapdoor that gave a false impression that the room was empty. The trapdoor was covered with a dressing table mirror and a drawer beneath had to be opened to activate access to the secret room beyond. Ghazi Baba, seated inside the secret room, could see outside through the mirror glass that veiled the existence of those inside.
Besides, closed circuit television cameras were also installed outside the entrance to the building to monitor people entering the house. This enabled Ghazi Baba to ensure his security and obtain some lead-time to prepare for a potential escape whenever such a need arose.
Ghazi Baba realised that the BSF team would discover him in a matter of minutes once they began manipulating the drawer beneath the dressing table mirror. He got his weapon ready and immediately opened a burst of fire on the first person to open the door. Thereafter, he made a hasty exit and as he was moving out in the confusion, an injured BSF officer, who feigned dead, fired a couple of rounds at him. Eventually, when he got down the staircase onto the ground floor, others in the outer cordon shot to kill him.
Ghazi Baba was a master of disguise and constantly changed his appearance to confuse even his own organisational cadres. He could not afford to reveal his true identity to anyone -- being high on the terrorist list wanted by the security forces.
Ghazi Baba rarely repeated the same call sign in wireless communication and resorted to different signs while speaking to his party members to avoid identification by security forces.
The militant’s interrogation yielded information about a particular mason who was involved in construction of a hideout. A Border Security Force (BSF) team led by three officers then located the hideout and positioned an outer cordon around the two-floored building, according to sources who requested anonymity for operational secrecy.
The BSF team stumbled on Ghazi Baba accidentally and was unprepared to confront him when they did so. To ensure that the security forces could not catch up with him easily, the guerilla leader would shift safe houses almost every other day. The entire encounter lasted no more than 15-20 minutes, the sources explained to Deccan Herald.
Ghazi Baba entered the hideout at 2 am and was killed an hour-and-a-half later. His bodyguard armed with a Russian Rashiv 5.54 mm rifle, opened fire on the BSF team, and was with his leader when he met his end.
Ghazi Baba’s hideout had a concealed entrance with a trapdoor that gave a false impression that the room was empty. The trapdoor was covered with a dressing table mirror and a drawer beneath had to be opened to activate access to the secret room beyond. Ghazi Baba, seated inside the secret room, could see outside through the mirror glass that veiled the existence of those inside.
Besides, closed circuit television cameras were also installed outside the entrance to the building to monitor people entering the house. This enabled Ghazi Baba to ensure his security and obtain some lead-time to prepare for a potential escape whenever such a need arose.
Ghazi Baba realised that the BSF team would discover him in a matter of minutes once they began manipulating the drawer beneath the dressing table mirror. He got his weapon ready and immediately opened a burst of fire on the first person to open the door. Thereafter, he made a hasty exit and as he was moving out in the confusion, an injured BSF officer, who feigned dead, fired a couple of rounds at him. Eventually, when he got down the staircase onto the ground floor, others in the outer cordon shot to kill him.
Ghazi Baba was a master of disguise and constantly changed his appearance to confuse even his own organisational cadres. He could not afford to reveal his true identity to anyone -- being high on the terrorist list wanted by the security forces.
Ghazi Baba rarely repeated the same call sign in wireless communication and resorted to different signs while speaking to his party members to avoid identification by security forces.