I’ve been trying to make sense of the progress of the Mumbai blasts investigation, and it’s not easy going. The latest news is the arrest of a local Mumbai man named Tanvir Ansari. Ansari is a traditional Muslim healer who practices ‘Unani’ healing in Mumbai. The Mumbai Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) claims he went to Pakistan in 2004, where he received training in bomb-making. He also has a criminal record — for an earlier arrest for possessing an AK-47 from some years ago.
Ansari’s arrest has led to the arrest of two associates, Suhail Sheikh and Jameer Ahmed. Like Ansari, Jameer Ahmed seems pretty unassuming: he owns a key shop in Mumbai city. Suhail Sheikh lives in Pune; I haven’t been able to find out what he does for a living.
Last week, the arrest of a man in Kenya is looking a little confusing. The man arrested there is not Said Abdul Karim (‘Tunda’), but a British national of Nigerian descent named Ismoila Olatunde Rufai. Rufai is still wanted by Kenyan police on suspicion of involvement with terrorism, but he’s not the person the Indian government was looking for. ‘Tunda’ worked for Dawood Ibrahim, and is known to have lost a hand from a bomb-making accident. Ismoila Rufai has no connection to ‘D’, and has both hands intact.
The three men arrested earlier have similarly complex identities (one of them had even worked as a police informer!). Two are Bihari villagers, and one lives in Navi Mumbai (New Bombay). Though one of the three has stated that he received training at an LeT camp in Pakistan, police are suggesting their main contacts are in Nepal and Bangladesh, and only “indirectly” in Pakistan. (This last point is somewhat vague in the news reports I’ve read.)
For columnist Rudroneel Ghosh at India Enews, the pattern of arrests thus far just doesn’t add up, which could mean one of two things:
The latest arrest of Dr. Tanvir Ansari in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts is making the investigations look weirder by the day. The four arrested so far seem like ordinary Joes who like most people in the country are trying to scrape out a living. Unless they are such highly trained sleeper agents that even Ian Fleming would be proud of, I really donÂ’t see where all of this is going. The Anti Terror Squad of the Mumbai Police keeps saying exactly that but doesnÂ’t yet have any proof to that effect. They keep saying that we know that they are LeT operatives and have been trained in Pakistan, but doesnÂ’t really have any hard evidence to prove that in court although they claim that one of the arrested has had a criminal record and had been previously charged for possessing an AK-47. But even so this personÂ’s specific role in the blasts isnÂ’t clear. Now, there could be two distinct possibilities. The Mumbai police and the ATS squad is right and these men are leading extraordinary double lives or they are wrong and these people are the innocent victims of a witch-hunt that is desperately seeking to somehow nail someone to take the heat off themselves. Now if it is the former then we have reasons to panic. For this would be the new face of terrorism; educated, respected members of the society who are sleeper agents for terrorist outfits. These people could be your next-door neighbours and you could know them for years. These could be your trusted friends and colleagues and yet you wouldnÂ’t know the truth about them. . . .
Now donÂ’t get me wrong, both the above two possibilities exist, but I am not at all convinced by he statements that the ATS investigators have made so far. They have absolutely nothing concrete, almost nothing to go forward on. Their comments and suspicions are at best vague and their investigation method seems to be lackluster to say the least. Whatever it is that they are doing or have planned for the future, this is not the way to respond to terrorism. (link)
While I would give investigators a little more credit and recommend patience in the investigation, I think Ghosh has a point when he argues that it’s all looking a little vague right now. It might also be said that if it turns out that Ansari is the ringleader, it wouldn’t be the first time that an educated, unassuming local person turned out to be a terrorist (the London bombers of 7/7 fit this profile). If readers have more or better information on who the arrested individuals are and how or whether this smells like a coherent conspiracy, I would be curious to hear it.
well we know police and ‘intelligence’ folk make mistakes. we also know that there’s lots of pressure to catch someone.
sounds like we know who did it. now, we just need to muster the will to go after these guys -come what may. india needs to send the message that terrorists will be buried alive.
funny how at times like this people’s vicious sides come out. understandable of course – but then violence all the same isn’t it. a nice circle eh.
Sonia, yes, terrorism provokes an emotional response. It’s natural, of course. But it doesn’t help anyone solve the puzzle. Since it’s also become clear that the Mumbai bombs were sophisticated devices that contained RDX triggers (contrary to early reports that the bombs were all ammonium nitrate), the big question becomes: where did the RDX come from, and is there any left over? Also: where were the bombs constructed?
Maybe some of that ‘hard’ evidence will come out in the days to come. But as of now, as I understand it, none of the arrested men had any explosives other than gunpowder with them or in their residences. And no trace of a bomb-making lab has been found. Until all of that is discovered, it will be hard to think of these six arrests as conclusive.
Thanks for the update. I really hope the police and the ATS do a thorough job of investigating the blasts rather than picking up convenient “usual suspects” to show the world they are making progress even if they are not. Extremists are very often well-educated people (and curiously, doctors and engineers and scientists are overrepresented among both Islamist cadres in the Arab world and the RSS/VHP leadership cadre) so Amardeep is right to say there is every possibility that a “respectable” doctor could do something like this. There have been occasional reports of the police finding RDX caches or stopping shipments, hopefully those leads will work out.
Let’s hope the investigation will not be too hampered by political pressures and will follow due process. Many times in the past (as with investigations into bomb blasts on buses in the last few years in Bombay)the cops have caught suspects only to let them go eventually for lack of evidence, and while I often hear people say they have to let suspects go due to political pressure, I think there’s an equal chance that they can’t find evidence because they were over-eager to pick people up at first without due diligence and intelligence. In the long run, finding suspects quickly may be emotionally satisfying but ham-handed arrests mean the real baddies may not be caught.
The thought of sleeper terrorist cells in Bombay makes my stomach turn.
these arrests have a similar air of smell that post 9/11 did. They were later released but completely humiliated
Well, the name “Olatunde” is commonly shortened to “Tunde.” Maybe the James Bond character took “Tunde” for “Tunda” and arrested the wrong guy. Oops. Egg on faces all around. But the Intelligence Service (why do they ever call it that?) spins it and says, “Well we got the wrong guy, but hey, this one is suspected of terrorism too.” Into the slammer he goes. And I guarantee that’s the last you’ll ever hear of Mr Rufai.
As Jeet says, there’s going to be lots of post-9/11 style running around like headless chickens because, at this point, the perception of “results” is actually more important than the real results of patient police work (to catch the culprits) and (more importantly, and much less likely to happen) addressing the political concerns that lead to terrorism in the first place.
SP,
“and curiously, doctors and engineers and scientists are overrepresented among both Islamist cadres in the Arab world and the RSS/VHP leadership cadre”
Like a true foot soldier of the “people with the balanced views”, you have to bring in moral equivalency in this issue, isn’t it? You guys can not talk about incidents related to Islamist terrorism without inserting the “balancing” angle. I term this as “secularism gone wild!” in India.
Since you brought up the issue, I must acknowledge that I do not have any idea about the educational background of the RSS/VHP leadership. All I know is that Praveen “Trishuldhari” Togadia of VHP is a doctor. This is ironic considering the views that he shows solidarity with.
Can you provide me a link that gives this information? I am curious to know the basis of your statement.
Regards,
To me this scenario is more highly likely knowing the history of recent western terrorism. People argue that terrorism is about oppression al la Palestine but this is the new face of terrorism. Well to do people who have never experienced the level of oppression that would lead them to these desperate measures but rather are fanatics who have an intolerant belief system. Sounds like the movie Arlington Road.
The lashkar-e-tayyiba is known to train deep cover operatives, who are activated at a time of its choosing. Such operatives are expected to lead perfectly normal lives until such a time. For operatives from Pakistan, they have been known to try and completely assimilate to the extent that they get married locally. This is also an intelligence tactic used by many agencies all over. So, this has precedent. Unfortunately, the columnist seems to have woken up to terrorist activity only recently.
Anindo, I mentioned the educational level issue because it seems counter-intuitive and it’s a common myth that folks who join such movements must be desperately poor. There are several academic books and papers on the subject – if you really want to know (rather than simply ranting about “secularism gone wild”).
A good basic book is Andersen and Damle’s The Brotherhood in Saffron. More recently, Pralay Kanungo’s RSS: A Tryst with Politics. These studies extrapolate from data drawn from a few districts/states. There are also several more recent books with more detail on BJP leadership cadres. There are also surveys and studies of BJP voters and members which show that their median educational level is quite high. There are some studies pulled together from electoral data (that candidates/parties are required to file) that show you the income and educational level for candidates by party but this is of course limited to the BJP, there has not been a rigorous study of VHP or RSS cadre that I know of to date.
Anecdotally, I’ve met VHP folks in the States who were nuclear physicists – very interesting people. There are studies of the VHP in India (one that I can remember off the top of my head is by Manjari Katju) and articles about their work in the US as well (Arvind Rajagopal), though fewer of these.
“and curiously, doctors and engineers and scientists are overrepresented among both Islamist cadres in the Arab world and the RSS/VHP leadership cadre”
I’m not a history or a terrorism expert but as far as I remember:
Terrorism by VHP/Extremist Hindus involving killing of innocent muslims = Gujrat (still debated upon) = 1 Terrorism by Extremist Muslims (Pak-based outfits, Bangladesh based outfits etc etc etc) = Delhi Diwali bombing, Varanasi, That college campus in Banglore, 93 bombay blasts, this years mumbai blasts, blah blah blah blah = more than 10-12 major terrorist acts in the last 10 years
I fail to understand why you would put them both in the same category.
india needs to send the message that terrorists will be buried alive.
I pity the bigot above who seems to be light years away from acquiring the supreme wisdom: addressing the political concerns that lead to terrorism in the first place.
SP,
I am sure, you have fair inkling about what prompted my rant about “Secularism Gone Wild”.
Thanks for the sources. I will try to read them.
I do think that to be a political leader and lead people in a functioning democracy, one needs to have some form of education. The education might not be perfect but it helps the politicians understand the pros and cons of various issues and help them shape policies on behalf of their constituencies. Therefore, the level of education and median levels of income of cadres might be statistically similar in all Indian parties. It might not be something special to the Hindu right in India.
J_M,
“addressing the political concerns that lead to terrorism in the first place.” and those political concerns would be …?
Regards,
Anindo,
Mr Kobayashi will enlighten you on the political concerns of a people so wronged they had to kill and maim hundreds of unsuspecting Mumbaiwallahs returning home after a hard day at work.
You would have detected the sarcasm if you were aware of my comment pedigree.
This is a very speculative post. Truth is no one in authorithy likely knows who did this yet. With the recent police records of most states in India, i won’t be surprised if majority of these folks are not connected with the blasts. Hell, 93 mumbai blast is still being tried. And the most famous defendent is roaming around the world dancing on stages and shooting bollywood movies. What say Munnabhai?
The inefficieny and corruption of police in India has a particularly lethal effect in these type of cases. On one hand culprits are never caught, only fingers pointed and on the other hand a section of society thinks, correctly so that their community is being unneccessarily tagged as anti-national because of the crimes of a few extremist elements.
Ironically, one of the few successful busting of LeT module happened in Gujrat under Modi. Ishrat Jahan, a woman with few male accomplices was found and eliminated after a chase. Initially there was lot of noise from the central UPA govt. and secularwallahs – for them this being another example of brutal Modi’s communal actions – but later the evidence was laid out and LeT itself claimed her as a member. http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/jul/14ishrat.htm
funny how at times like this people’s vicious sides come out
a not so veiled reference to the preceding comment; india needs to send the message that terrorists will be buried alive.
Deafening jingoism maybe, but certainly not vicious. understandable of course – but then violence all the same isn’t it. a nice circle eh.
You are right. Let’s not fall into the terrorists’ trap and complete the circle by catching and punishing them.
The same “logic” that claims that the West has no “high moral ground” as terrorism by a Christian extremist like Tim McVeigh is equivalent to the terrorism by Muslim fanatics.
Indian intelligence. We have discussed their poor output but what does intelligence really constitute in the Indian community ?
Police informers, interrogation or the files of RAW and the intelligence bureau.
How effective are the latter two agencies?
RAW and the IB are probably one of the most shadowy and publicly under researched organizations, their recruitement and training are based on speculation. During the Cold war era these two were known to be the one of the best in the region, creation of Bangladesh, repulsing CIA’s recruitement drives ( Robert Baer in his excellent “See No Evil” details some of his encounters with the efficient counter intelligenceof the IB). Their best operation can be summed up by Clintons astonishment on hearing about the Indian nuclear tests on CNN.
However in the field of foreign intelligence they are severly lacking, Intelligence agents are simply out of their league in these areas with much of the intelligence work delegated to the IFS cadres who are trained for diplomatic work.
Both agencies needs to rethink their recruitement strategies and start working on recruiting those thousands of NRI’s who have lived their lives in specific countries. IF they had a good intelligence apparatus in Dubai in 1993, the bomb blasts could have been prevented. All of India’s intelligence on the events is restricted to inside the border. Once India stretches its tentacles to these areas can we come up with some good estimates and what to watch for. You would be surprised to know the wealth of information that flows during ‘poetry reading sessions’ in the middle east or public discources on world events exclusive to a community.
If we had such assets in place information on the attack and the identity of the attackers can probably be discovered, because wouldnt you think that whoever carried out this attacks is eating a falafel in Dubai, Muscat ,Bahrain etc….
on recruiting those thousands of NRI’s who have lived their lives in specific countries
Very bad suggestion. I think I don’t need to elaborate. You would be surprised to know the wealth of information that flows during ‘poetry reading sessions’ in the middle east or public discources on world events exclusive to a community.
Have you attended any of these events? If so please recount one which could be construed as damaging to India.
Kriv, could you give an example of this happening in the past? A link to a non-partisan website would also be helpful, if you have one.
What exactly is the debate, my friend? 🙂
Actually i’m curious, why not?
Actually I rather not, i don’t want to start a comment war.
Kesh,
Well if you are suggesting say for example Indian Americans start spying on America for India. Wouldn’t it be wrong and contrary to their own well being? Though I feel that’s not what you had in mind. You probably have a point though for such an undertaking in the Gulf where Indians might not have a democratic alternative to countering sabotage against India. Besides anything that can be done to prevent such a bloodbath is worthwile
Actually I rather not, i don’t want to start a comment war
I too was being curious and wanted to read a couple of examples.
Amardeep,
If I may …
The pattern seems similar to previous such cells uncovered.
In the “Ghatkopar bomb blast” case, the accused was a Telecom engineer. He was acquitted, but I think the government has appleaed to a higher court. http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/01-15May04-Print-Edition/0105200498.htm
Mulund bomb blast case prime accused Dr Mohammed Abdul Mateen was a doctor at J.J. Hospital (a prominent Bombay hospital). Again he was acquitted. http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/09mum.htm http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=140522
Now you can interpret the acquittal’s as you like. The common factor was Majeed Memom, a prominent Bombay lawyer who represented the accused in both these cases. He has said that he will refuse to represent any persons accused of the 7/11 bombings.
P.S. Ghatkopar and Mulund are both Bombay suburbs on the central line, in case you are unaware.
In fact, one of the accused in the Mulund bomb blast was a lecturer at Pune’s National Defence Academy. India’s equivalent of West Point or Sandhurst.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2003/may/12mum.htm
Bongdongs, thanks, that’s helpful. I notice that one of the people arrested in that 2003 train bombing was also an Ansari — I wonder if he’s any relation? (Probably not, but it’s still an interesting coincidence)
India has a very low conviction rate for violent crime, so I agree with what I think you’re implying — that acquittal doesn’t necessarily mean those guys were innocent.
Amardeep, If you are trying to read more on the issue, you could read about (very public) investigation into the Parliament attack.
For instance: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/12/17/stories/2001121700210100.htm
In this case it is alleged that the “fidayeen” were Pakistani. Their Indian contacts were Afzal (a “surrendered” millitant who turned out to be not-so-much-surrendered) and his cousin Shaukat Guru who’s wife Afsan Guru was also an accused in the case. They were accused of being in contact with Geelani a lecturer at Delhi University.
Afzal and Shaukat were sentenced to death and Geelani and Afsan were acquitted.
last post …
Praveen Swami at “The hindu” in my opinion writes some of the best and most detailed analyis of terrorism in India.
Yes, I know his stuff — I notice he also got pulled in by the widely misreported “Tunda” arrest, and for the past three days has been quiet!
It may have been re-published, but that is a very old article of his.
sorry, read the article, seems like he has rehashed his old article and added the bit about the “arrest” in Mombassa.
ah, and before I forget,
Rudroneel Ghosh, my fellow bong is a grade-A [insult deleted. No gratuitous ad hominems please. –Admin].
did you miss his article from July 23rd? Link
He implies that the man arrested may actually have been Tunda, but that the US (or someone else?) was able to get their hands on him before Indian officials could reach him.
From Swami’s latest article:
VJ, yup, I missed it, sorry. (Was looking only at the ‘Opinion’ pages)
At first it seemed implausible to me. But while it must be filed under the category of “total speculation,” it does strike me as plausible that the U.S. would want to snatch him up in this way: he’s only two degrees of separation from Osama bin Laden, possibly less.
VJ,
The US administration has gone all out to save their favourite protgege, note Bouchers statements.
On this note, B. Raman’s article:
Lessons from the Mumbai blasts
“The US experts wanted to take a detonator and timer which had been recovered intact to the US for forensic examination and promised to return them after the examination. I agreed to it. A few days later, they gave an unsigned report that they were of American origin and were part of stock given to Pakistan during the Afghan war in the 1980s.
The report added this did not necessarily mean the terrorists got them from the ISI. It pointed out that in Pakistan there was a lot of leakage of government arms and ammunition to smugglers and expressed the view that the terrorists might have procured them from the smugglers.
When I asked them to return the detonator and the timer as promised by them they replied that their forensic experts had by mistake destroyed them. They did not apparently want to leave any”
It’s also possible people are being arrested as super tangential accomplices, to scare them into being witnesses/informing more than they’re probably already scared of the real culprits.
How “Bombay’s finest” (and their puppet masters) respond to terrorist attacks
0) At random intervals of time transfer, dismiss or arrest every effective police officer (Notice that I said effective, not honest. Sanjeev Dayal was, in my opinion, very honest. I don’t know about Daya Nayak.) 1) Never appear at the scene till bystanders have transported everyone to hospitals themselves in autorickshaws and taxis 2) Panic! Bring back suspended, transferred, arrested officers – who by now have lost their intelligence network 3) Arrest 500 ‘suspects’, beat them up, let them go (presumably after extracting 500 Rs per person from them) 4) Arrest 4 more ‘key suspects’, create tenuous stories around them..or none at all 5) Prosecute ‘key suspects’ over 5 years 6) Lose in court, promise to take case to higher court, do nothing. 7) Loop!
All this is when they take a break from arresting couples making out and raping unsuspecting girls
Section 110 of IPC which Mumbai’s finest love to enforce
‘Any ‘indecent’ behaviour in public places, including kissing, putting arms around the neck or reclining on your companion’s lap, is punishable.’
Right on! Arrest those Kissers…because 10 innocent people die every time a couple kisses at bandstand. Or “puts arms around the neck” or “reclines on companion’s lap”
Amardeep,
I don’t see what the fuss is all about. Under Indian law a person is innocent until proven guilty. As long as the legal rights of the suspects are respected, I don’t see any reason anyone’s comment on where the investigation is going needs to be taken with any seriousness. I don’t know who Rudroneel Ghosh, the journalist is. Is he based in Mumbai, and basing his reports on first hand interviews with the police? Or is he basing is opinion on what he reads in the press?
And if you really felt that the investigation is still work in progress, what’s the point in highlighting a report that casts doubts on those investigations? It’s not an easy job. Let’s give them a chance. If they screw up, let’s excoriate them and condemn them to hell. Right now, it’s too early to tell.
I have no idea what his background is. It’s an opinion based on the facts so far, and bloggers are in the business of trading opinions, as you well know.
My post admittedly isn’t as valuable as an analysis based on full possession of the facts which will only be possible years from now. But it is nevertheless important to raise these questions in the present moment to disabuse people of the idea that what the Indian government really needs to do to stop terrorism is invade Pakistan occupied Kashmir tomorrow. In this particular case, Nepal and Bangladesh might actually end up being more important.
It’s not that early. Two weeks, six high profile arrests (plus the mysterious arrest in Kenya).
Since many SM readers are in the U.S. and UK — where the blasts investigation has fallen off the radar — one goal of this post was simply to gather up what has been happening by way of ‘coverage.’ Also, I ended by soliciting readers’ knowledge and opinions, and if you read the earlier comments you’ll see that readers did offer some interesting information relating to earlier bombings — which might end up having bearing on the current investigation.
Of course not! Spying on a country that you are a citizen of is out of the question, and America is not what i have in mind as i’m all for better relations between both countries. I’m talking about the nations in the east that have hampered India’s efforts to nab the masterminds of its terror suspects.
jilted can you give me an e-mail addy that i can share some of this info with privately.
Here.
I have not seriously researched the course of events so far, but it looked to me as if first, the Indian government wanted to blame Pakistan (e.g. many statements about how there cannot be talks while Pakistan abets terrorism), but then, the investigation began to focus on domestic perpetrators. Now, it seems to me that if a government is subject to state-sponsored terrorism and cannot do anything against the sponsor (in the short term, anyway), there will be a very strong pressure to hide the sponsorship and focus on the individual terrorists, to avoid communicating weakness; and I wondered if that might be happening here. Then again, I can see that the LeT angle is still being played up, so… Just a thought.
Amardeep, Here is a newspaper report about Lashkar sleeper cells in South India: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060417/asp/nation/story_6108305.asp
Here is an article from the South Asia Terrorism Portal with more detail about their modus operandi. http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/sair/Archives/3_52.htm#ASSESSMENT1
I can’t say how the current investigations are going but it has been at least 4 years since reports from the intelligence agencies have mentioned that the profile of the terror operatives has changed. Terrorist organisations have managed to recruit people from middle and upper-middle classes, well settled professionals who had all the material comforts, and a good social position. There was a blast in Kashmir, sometime in early 2002, which started these reports. One of cell members turned out to be an engineer employed by an MNC. Outlook had a few reports on it in 2002 and 2003 – if I have the time to hunt those stories out, I’ll post the links here.
Another point, this in reference to comment # 12:
The commentor says, and rightly, that I fail to understand why you would put them both in the same category. These shouldn’t be put in the same category, for the simple reason that what happened in Gujarat happened with the complicity, if not the support, of the state government. Also, the victims were not chosen at random, their pain and anguish was not dependant upon their physical location [as is the case with terrorism sponsored by non-state actors], but were carefully and deliberately targetted over an entire state. Not only was there no one they could turn to for help, their terror wasn’t the matter of a single day, or a single morning/evening. Nope, they were targetting for weeks upon weeks. Definitely not the same thing as one terrorist attack, no matter how big.
jilted can you give me an e-mail addy that i can share some of this info with privately
I’d like to get the info from you but I am very uncomfortable leaving my email id on this supposedly non-partisan website which makes an exception to list the following non-desi event on its strictly desi-only events page. I had actually put up a link to a groundbreaking piece of news when the Middle East debate was hot on this thread, only to see it disappear momentarily. Of course the bit about UN’s Jan Egeland bluntly accusing Hezbollah of causing civilian casualties was not a Desi issue. The same hawk eyed intern/blogger has kept the following event going for the last four days. And yes I brought their attention to this twice. Now of course I’ll be branded an inhumane guy. What’s your problem? They’ll ask. Well it might be a worthy cause but……. You get the point. non-desi-related submissions will be deleted
Sat Jul. 29, New York Alwan for the Arts Benefit Concert for Lebanon & Palestine tamasha posted on July 25, 2006, 10:31 pm EDT A concert of Lebanese resistance music featuring songs by Fairouz & Marcel Khalifeh. Donations: $20 / $30 / $40. All proceeds will go to humanitarian relief organizations.
When: Sat, July 29, 2006, 8:00pm Where: Alwan For the Arts, 16 Beaver St, 4th Floor, New York
Will this reporting by Somini Sengupta about LeT’s hand in Mumbai bombing work as the “proof”?
From the article
One difference though. No white people were killed.
Some facts to share :
Here’s the Qana “rescue worker” in the green helmet, photographed extensively in Qana by Adnan Hajj for Reuters, now in Tyre, doing what he does best: making sure wire service photographers get close-up pictures of dead bodies.
2. BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Monday that one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Houla, not 40 as he had earlier reported.
3.
LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer ( Adnan Hajj ) from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.
Sorry. You may delete the earlier comment. It was meant for another post.