Mansoor Peerbhoy: An unlikely jihadi, he shows no remorse
With an impressive resume, a senior position with Yahoo and hailing from an educated family, Mansoor Peerbhoy may have appeared an unlikely jehadi to his folks and peers. But the facade masked a fanatical commitment to a jehad against “tormentors” of Muslims.
Intelligence sources who collaborated with Mumbai police to arrest Mansoor and others of an Indian Mujahideen cell conspiring to wreak mayhem in Mumbai were struck by the techie terrorist’s utter lack of remorse. Frail and bespectacled, Peerbhoy, one of whose brothers is a chest specialist in UK and another an architect, was not fazed by his arrest or the punishment that awaits him.
“We are not bothered about what happens in this life,” Mansoor snapped, revealing the depth of radical zeal that can turn educated and “regular” guys into jehadis who do not flinch from mass murders of innocents.
Nor did the 31-year-old from Pune look particularly perturbed by the likely fallout of his diabolic enterprise for his wife, a homoeopath with a BHMS degree, and kid. “Allah will take care (of them),” he said coolly when asked why even concern for loved ones failed to deter him from taking to the path of violence and risk when things were going fine for him. Steeped in what he saw as the persecution of Muslims in India, Iraq, Chechnya, Indonesia and other places, Peerbhoy had taken lessons in Arabic at Pune’s Quran Foundation. Why a successful professional would take time off his busy schedule, which took him to the US twice in the past year or so, to learn Arabic puzzled interrogators, but for the terrorist this was not just a distraction but an important obligation. “You can appreeciate the best practices of Islam only if you know Arabic,” he said.
Mansoor, whose knowledge of computers and software is rated as exceptional, also revealed how Indian Mujahideen spotters — Akbar and Arif — scanned those coming for Arabic lessons at Quran Foundation to seek recruits. Akbar would take recruits to meet Bhatkal brothers — Iqbal and Riaz, the two frontrank