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NEW DELHI -- Terrorist attacks have shattered the peace in more than half a dozen Indian cities over the past year. Yet none threatened India's secular and democratic polity as much as the carnage that jolted Mumbai on Wednesday. Mumbai is India's financial and commercial capital and arguably the country's most cosmopolitan metropolis. By targeting, among other establishments, two of the city's most opulent hotels -- the Taj and the Trident -- where the rich, famous and influential congregate to advance their business and political agendas, the terrorists struck at the very symbol of a resurgent nation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112702049.html
The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Special Investigating Cell (SIC) requested an extension of the police remand for Lakhvi, Shah and al Qama because it wanted to question them further following the receipt of India's response to Pakistan's 30 questions seeking further information on the Mumbai attacks.
Following SIC's plea, Anti-terror Court judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahut remanded Lakhvi and Shah to the custody of the FIA for two more days during a hearing held in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.
In the light of the new information provided by India, the SIC is to arrange for the three accused to watch some CDs provided by India and then interrogate them, SIC officials said. Lakhvi, Shah and al Qama are the main suspects in the case, the officials told the judge.
The judge also remanded LeT activist Hamad Amin Sadiq, described by Pakistani officials as the "main operator" behind the Mumbai attacks, to judicial custody for 14 days. He will be held at Adiala Jail.
Javed Iqbal, was lured back to Pakistan from the Spanish city of Barcelona, Malik said.
He said two other men being held were Khan and Riaz, withholding their full names so as not to compromise the investigation.
Tracing telephone calls and bank transfers had led to the capture of a key figure in the conspiracy, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Malik said.
"He was basically the main operator," Malik said, adding that his interrogation led to the raid on two hideouts, one in the port city, and one two hours outside.
"We have located those locations which were used by the terrorists before launching themselves," Malik said.
"They had some kind of training, they went into ocean," Malik said, saying they had sailed from Karachi.
"Some of the accused who have been arrested, they have given us the full rundown."
Strategic analysis of the Mumbai attacks: Few points to project
By Walid Phares
As the Indian Government has issued its various reports on the Mumbai attacks and as a number of Think Tanks worldwide are issuing their evaluation and projections, the long term debate about what the operation meant, was meant to become and could generate in the future is now wide open. Pakistan's Government evaluation is focusing on minimizing the possibility of an inside assistance to the perpetrators. The Indian Government and agencies are focusing on determining the responsibility of Islambad's Government. In the West and also in Russia, analysts are studying the ability of international or local (called Homegrown) Jihadists of producing similar attacks in the future. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion I have briefed a number of US Representatives and members of the European Parliament on some points of projection and published several short pieces over the past month. Many of these points were expanded by colleagues. Following is an article published by the World Defense Review. I have added an interview with ETWN aired just before the inauguration of the new Administration.
As part of a panel held in the US Congress to review the Mumbai attacks, I raised four points in my global analysis of the Terror operation and its strategic goals:
1. The Jihadi decision-making process leading to the Mumbai operation.
2. What I define as the "strategic war room" ordering the operation. That is, the level of command behind this attack and other terror strikes. Such a discussion is needed because the media debate about the identity of those implicated in the operation has blurred the understanding of the public and thus needs to be clarified.
3. The strategic goal of the operation was designed by the higher levels in the Jihadi decision-making web above those who executed the operation. The execution team – killed and detained – was made of 10 individuals. But, it is very possible that the full number of those involved in the entire operation may be not yet determined. In this regard I am surmising that the "terror commandos" may have been ordered to action in Mumbai in order to trigger a crisis that only the higher level may know about.
4. The long range goals for this operation, meaning at the strategic level in the region.
"Architecture" of the attack
The "architecture" of the operation shows two components. First, there was an insistence on behalf of the perpetrators to draw "Indian participation" in the operation by using the name "Deccan Mujahedeen," referring to the previous attacks by the "Indian Mujahedeen" (IM). In October 2008 there were significant arrests of IM; there were Indian statements indicating that there are a large number of IM still on the loose; and there is fear of them striking back. Those who issued the Mumbai press release are trying to insinuate that they are the Deccan province "chapter" of the IM. If in the future, there is activity – in Assam for example – or other parts of India, they will use the name of that region to issue a press release in this sense. This reminds us of Al Qaeda's "local identities" in the Levant; Al Qaeda in Iraq, Al Qaeda in Arabia, etc. The focus is on looking "credible" in terms of statements and identity. But when you compare the declared identity of the perpetrators with the many traces left behind by the organizers of the strike, you'd draw different conclusions. If you come by sea and use dinghies, and make traceable cell phone calls to India's neighbor to its west, you are forcing every investigator to blame Pakistan. I am inviting the reflection that on the one hand there is an effort to show this is a local jihadi operation in India, but on the other hand evidence was left on purpose to show the link to Islamabad.
The strategic war room
If one analyzes the names of groups thought to be involved starting with the "Islamic Students Union of India" and the Laskar e-Taiba, (LeT) and examines the chain of interests – you'd see that the decision to strike was made at a regional Jihadist level. It comes at the heal of previous incidents inside India on one hand but if you project the operation's indicators it would lead you on the other hand to the logic that a decision had been made on a much higher level than local Jihadists inside India. That decision was most likely made in the war room including al Qaeda and the Taliban, with the LeT being "subcontracted" for the operation. The information supply may have been provided by infiltrated elements within the Pakistani security apparatus. If you look at the grand scheme and the direction of events, you will see the strategic interests of the Taliban and Al Qaeda while the execution was perpetrated by the LeT.
Long Range Goal
Third is the long-range goal. In most analysis and in any investigative paths followed, you'd conclude that the final outcome desired is to affect the relations between India and Pakistan. Two indicators are to be observed: One is the immediate reaction by the Jihadi websites as well as comments on Al Jazeera and other media asserting that the only root cause of the attack is Kashmir. The same editorial line was also adopted in many international media usually influenced by the Jihadi claim over Kashmir. This push seems to force the debate to be about Kashmir and not the jihadist movement.
However, another indicator began developing since a press release from the Taliban stated, "We will defend Pakistan from an attack by India." Thus, one can reconstruct the moves. Step one was for a group of Jihadists to attack India under the Kahsmir claim and to provoke India to mobilize against Pakistan. Step two was for Jihadi groups to state that they will defend Pakistan. Through this strategy, the Taliban and their allies think they would "shame" Islamabad into discontinuing its operations in Waziristan. In the mind of al qaeda – it would be odd and psychologically unpopular for the Pakistani Government to order more military pressure on the Taliban inside their country if India is mobilizing on its Eastern border. Striking in Mumbai is designed to relieve the pressure from Waziristan.
If we review the message by Zawahiri few weeks ago, we see that he warned the incoming US administration as follows: "If you increase the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, there will be escalation on the battlefield." Two weeks later the Jihadists hit Mumbay, aiming at creating tensions between India and Pakistan. In al Qaeda and the "War room" logic – the projected equation would give the Jihadists more room to operate in the region as a whole. It will be difficult for the U.S. government to launch an all out offensive following the promised build-up coming in Afghanistan to squeeze the Taliban, while there are extreme tensions with India.
Pakistan redeployment:
A legitimate concern among observers is to wonder about Pakistan's near future redeployment. The United States and NATO have used Coalition support funds to have Pakistan redeploy to be able to engage the Jihadists on its western border with Afghanistan. Will there be a tipping point where either the Pakistan army pulls out of its ongoing operations to get ready for redeployment? As we examine the strategic balance of power in the region the option of withdrawing some of these forces away from the north western frontier can surely create a dramatic shift. But even if the regular forces were withdrawn from the area, the intelligence service would remain there. Would the local Jihadists prefer to have the intelligence services? It is to be analyzed further. The second point of interest for the investigation is that for those who engineered this operation in Mumbai, this may not be the end of the process. This is not the final chapter if indeed this is a strike against India to force it to strike back at Pakistan. We would have to look at what would inflame the Pakistani people and army: it could be an assassination or any sensational violence.
Al Qaeda involvement
Some in the US intelligence have dismissed an involvement by al Qaeda. Their reasoning is based on the fact that it "doesn't bare the usual hallmarks" of the Bin Laden organization. But in my reading of the group's structure, al Qaeda does not always involve its own central units in the execution of every single Jihadi operation. They execute "central operations" as praetorian guards, but they also "subcontract" operations in many regions. In the sub Indian continent, I would assume that in the decision-making there must be some sort of al Qaeda participation in the back and forth talking, but in the execution, once a group is tasked, there is no need for al Qaeda assets. In this case since Laska e Taiba provided the infantrymen. The "central units" of al Qaeda didn't have to be used.
Propaganda
Let's also be aware that it is likely that as the terrorists seized locations in the city for many hours, this urban jihad was also aimed at creating the televised footage for the future. The product may not even be produced by LeT but some Jihadists at some point will use the photos and video from the clashes for indoctrination and recruitment purposes.
Muslim victims
As in many similar operations by Jihadists, Muslims have been killed during the shooting. Many commentators have wondered if this fact should be highlighted in the campaign to delegitimize the terrorists. I believe such facts needs to be cited but more important is that Muslim entities should condemn the attacks and raise the issue. India's Muslim community is very large and many of its members are holding important positions in national and local government. India's current vice president, ministers, deputies and high ranking officers, including the police commissioner in Mumbai are Muslims. These leaders are well positioned to condemn the Jihadi attacks and delegitimize this radical ideology.
Laskar's future operations
What can one learn in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks? And ironically how will the Jihadists improve their action in future strikes?
They have reversed the previous logic: you are not going to achieve one specific goal; you are fighting for the bigger goal. Second, if you look at the numbers involved in the operation the scenarios are becoming wider and wider. Maybe the next operation won't be a copy cat but a copy cat plus. The next might be against hotels and schools. The invitation is open to improve upon it.
Laska e Taiba and US Homeland Security
Last but not least, one has to look at the extension of LeT outside the Indian subcontinent and its presence overseas, including in America. This operation is an eye opener with implications on US homeland security. In the late 90's a Terror group, the so called "paintball jihad network" based in Virginia, was dismantled and its members were tried. Some of them are of them are serving time now. The Counter Terrorism community is invited to review the archives of the trial and media reports and re-analyze their training, tactics and targets. Before 9/11, they openly claimed affiliation with Laskar e Taiba and said they were involved in terror activities in Kashmir. But now that we've seen LeT striking way south of Kashmir and as experts confirmed the "Laskar" has support in their Diapora, one has to project that LeT cells may be tasked to also attack within liberal democracies, including particularly in America.
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— Dr. Walid Phares is Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C., and a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. He is the author of the recently released book, The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad
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Interview on EWTN: Analyzing the Mumbai attacks; "The Urban Jihad"
1 Subcontracted by Al Qaeda & Taliban
2 Jihads claim to protect pakistan from India - seek to shame the pak gov
3 LET cells outside India/Pak
Waking cells even in USA
JuD has no links with 26x11: Saeed
Wednesday, 04 February , 2009, 15:36
Islamabad: The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the terror outfit which supposedly planned and executed the November 2008 Mumbai attack, has claimed that it has no links with the Mumbai attacks or with the Al-Qaeda.
According to the Dawn, the banned terror outfit (JuD) has released a letter saying that it has no role in the Mumbai carnage, and neither has any links with the other terror groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Pakistan government takes over JuD HQ
“We categorically make it clear and declare that Jamaat-ud-Dawa is neither an associate of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden nor the Taliban, hence the embargo imposed is materially in contradiction to that set out in their rules and highly unjustified under the international law of human dignity and freedom,” the letter said.
The letter, signed by the JuD chief Hafiz Muahmmad Saeed, added that the United Nations (UN) had taken a hasty step while deciding to ban the organisation as it was only involved in charity work in the country.
Pak may release 26/11 probe findings in a week
“The UN decision was detrimental to the interests of Pakistan. Millions across the country were directly or indirectly benefiting from JuD’s services particularly in the areas of health, education, water, sanitation, rehabilitation and particularly the provision of food and shelter to the homeless,” it said.
Saeed remarked that the UN’s ban on the JuD was due to a prejudice supported by the Indian stance on the Mumbai attack, and it had no material facts to support the claims that the group was involved in the attack.
The letter reiterated that the JuD had no organizational or legal link with Lashkar-e-Taiba, and it was a legal Pakistan based charitable NGO, and all of its institutes and projects were registered in the country.
Incidentally, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s letter urging the United Nations to lift the ban on it, coincides with the visit of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Crackdown on Militants Leaves Imams Preaching Jihad
By James Rupert
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A dozen Pakistani policemen stood watch last week outside a Lahore mosque known to be a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla group -- while the imam inside preached jihad to thousands of worshippers.
The squad’s presence was part of Pakistan’s vow to curb Lashkar, which India blames for the Nov. 26-29 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 164 people, and it showed how limited that effort has been. As the officers heard Saifullah Khalid’s sermon blaring over loudspeakers, he demanded more attacks on India.
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Updated : 31 Dec 2008
* It is very unlikely that the Mumbai Attacks were sponsored by the Pakistani Goverment/State
* The Mumbai attack appears to be an operation by the LET military wing (or a close associate)
* LET and associates often create "new" groups to deflect accountability (eg Deccan group)
* The aim was more likely to be to destabilise the political environment between India , Pakistan & Western Allies
* The attack may well be a diversion organised between LET & Al Qaeda to deflect attention from the tribal areas used by both organisations
* There appear to be rogue elements of the Pakistani ISI & military assisting the LET
* The LET receives indirect and possibly direct assistance by professional rogue military & ISI operatives
* The military wing of LET is not a "rag tag" mountain militant group
* LET military wing is well funded, well trained & well organised operation
* LET military wing (at least ) has links to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups
* LET military wing operates in a number of locations & countries.
* LET has trained people in Middle East and Chechnya, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afganistan and other areas (possibly Bosnia).
Other Observations :
* Once a person is "radicalised" it costs little to arm and maintain them
* The aim of terror attacks is to create "terror by uncertainty"
Al Qaeda threatens to attack India for the first time
11 Feb 2009, 0302 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Al Qaeda for the first time has directly trained its guns on India, warning of a Mumbai-style attack if there is a strike on
Pakistan. The support for Pakistan from the global jihad syndicate is not expected as Islamabad has been indulgent towards the efforts to make Quetta and the so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas the incubating ground of a reorganised and protected Al Qaeda.
Using its usual style of communication, the Al Qaeda shot off the warning to India through a video that was received by the BBC in London. “India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan,’’ said Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, who is reportedly the Al Qaeda's military commander in Afghanistan and is ranked behind No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. What is also being noted here is that Pakistan had claimed that Al Yazid was killed in fighting last August Bajaur tribal region in Pakistan.
In the 20-minute video, the Al Qaeda commander, speaking in Arabic, spews venom against India and its armed forces.
“The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan. They will target your economic centres and raze them to the ground.” The terrorists further criticised the ban on the Jamaat Ud Dawa, which was imposed after the Mumbai attacks.
For the Al Qaeda, Pakistan remains a safe haven where it can regroup and launch attacks mainly into Afghanistan.
However, experts believe that the terror organisation is not in a position to launch attacks against India but is in a position to invigorate other groups which shares its jihadi ideology.
“It is not Al Qaeda but the Pakistani military that is targeting India. The Al Qaeda is fragmented and on the run. They are not really a potent threat against India. What is potent is the Pakistani military,’’ said Brahma Chellaney, professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research. “These groups are all linked and form a global jihad syndicate,’’ he added. New Delhi has accused the ISI and by extension the Pakistani military of continuing to nurture terror groups in Pakistan.
Experts believe that it is this connection that has proved dangerous for India with the most recent example being the Mumbai terror attacks.
Al Qaeda in the video also targets Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari asking the people in Pakistan to rise up and overthrow the government, according to the BBC.
The Al Qaeda commander in the video is suspected to have been involved in a number of terror attacks, including last year's Danish Embassy bombings in Pakistan and had claimed the responsibility of assassinating former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. According to reports, he last surfaced in August 2008 to confirm the death of Al Qaeda chemical-weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
The most important asset of the ISI, the Laskhar-e-Taiba (LET), was split after 9/11. Several of its top-ranking commanders and office bearers joined hands with al-Qaeda militants.
A millionaire Karachi-based businessman, Arif Qasmani, who was a major donor for ISI-sponsored LET operations in India, was arrested for playing a double game - he was accused of working with the ISI while also sending money to Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area for the purchase of arms and ammunition for al-Qaeda militants.
The network of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which was a major supporter of the ISI in the whole region, especially in Bangladesh, was shattered and fell into the hands of al-Qaeda when Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, chief of Harkat, a hero of the armed struggle in Kashmir who had spent two years in an Indian jail, was arrested by Pakistani security forces in January 2004. He was suspected of having links to suicide bombers who rammed their vehicles into then-president General Pervez Musharraf's convoy on December 25, 2003.
He was released after 30 days and cleared of all suspicion, but he was profoundly affected by the experience and abandoned his struggle for Kashmir's independence and moved to the North Waziristan tribal area with his family. His switch from the Kashmiri struggle to the Afghan resistance was an authentic religious instruction to those in the camps in Kashmir to move to support Afghanistan's armed struggle against foreign forces. Hundreds of Pakistani jihadis established a small training camp in the area.
Almost simultaneously, Harkat's Bangladesh network disconnected itself from the ISI and moved closer to al-Qaeda. That was the beginning of the problem which makes the Mumbai attack a very complex story.
A major reshuffle in the ISI two months ago
(about Sept) officially shelved this low-key plan as the country's whole focus had shifted towards Pakistan's tribal areas. The director of the external wing was also changed, placing the "game" in the hands of a low-level ISI forward section head (a major) and the LET's commander-in-chief, Zakiur Rahman.
Zakiur was in Karachi for two months to personally oversee the plan. However, the militant networks in India and Bangladesh comprising the Harkat, which were now in al-Qaeda's hands, tailored some changes. Instead of Kashmir, they planned to attack Mumbai, using their existent local networks, with Westerners and the Jewish community center as targets.
Under directives from Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kiani, who was then director general (DG) of the ISI, a low-profile plan was prepared to support Kashmiri militancy. That was normal, even in light of the peace process with India. Although Pakistan had closed down its major operations, it still provided some support to the militants so that the Kashmiri movement would not die down completely.
After Kiani was promoted to chief of army staff, Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj was placed as DG of the ISI. The external section under him routinely executed the plan of Kiani and trained a few dozen LET militants near Mangla Dam (near the capital Islamabad). They were sent by sea to Gujrat, from where they had to travel to Kashmir to carry out operations.
Meanwhile, a major reshuffle in the ISI two months ago officially shelved this low-key plan as the country's whole focus had shifted towards Pakistan's tribal areas. The director of the external wing was also changed, placing the "game" in the hands of a low-level ISI forward section head (a major) and the LET's commander-in-chief, Zakiur Rahman.
Hours before the US missile strike meant to assassinate bin Laden, he is warned that his satellite phone is being used to track his location and he turns it off. A former CIA official later alleges the warning came from supporters working for Pakistani intelligence, the ISI.
ISI had many hours to alert bin Laden. Furthermore, Clarke later says, “I have reason to believe that a retired head of the ISI was able to pass information along to al-Qaeda that an attack was coming.” This is a likely reference to Hamid Gul, director of the ISI in the early 1990’s.
January 17, 2007: Mullah Omar Allegedly in Pakistan Under ISI Protection
Muhammad Hanif confessing on video.Muhammad Hanif confessing on video. [Source: BBC]A captured Taliban spokesman claims that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is living in Pakistan under the protection of the ISI. Muhammad Hanif, a.k.a. Abdul Haq Haji Gulroz, one of two Taliban spokesmen, was recently captured by the Afghan government. He is seen on video saying to his captors, “[Omar] lives in Quetta [a Pakistan border town]. He is protected by the ISI.” He further claims that the ISI funds and equips Taliban suicide bombings and former ISI Director Hamid Gul supports and funds the insurgency. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and claims Omar has not been seen in Pakistan.
Yunus Qanooni, the interior minister of Afghanistan’s new government, accuses elements of Pakistan’s ISI of helping bin Laden and Mullah Omar escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan. He further asserts that the ISI are still “probably protecting” both bin Laden and Mullah Omar and “concealing their movements and sheltering leaders of Taliban and al-Qaeda.”
The Lashkar-Nuke link
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a terrorist group based in Muridke, Pakistan. Although founded by the chief promoter of the Afghan jihad and bin Laden mentor, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, LeT claims ousting India from Kashmir as its main goal. But experts say LeT shared training camps with al-Qaeda and that many al-Qaeda-linked Afghan-Arabs have been found fighting for LeT in Indian-administered Kashmir. The LeT fought on the side of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well.
What is definite is that Khan did attend the last openly held LeT moot, in April 2001, as an honored guest. Accompanying Khan on the dais was none other than Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the plutonium expert who met bin Laden. According to the South Asia Analysis Group, bin Laden himself was known to address LeT annual meets over the phone for many years, even when he was hiding in Afghanistan and Sudan.
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In 2002, top al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida was arrested from a LeT safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Pakistani officials did not, however, arrest LeT leader Hameedullah Khan Niazi, who had housed Zubaida. In late 2003, the brother of Indonesian terrorist Hambali and many of his Indonesian and Malaysian associates were also arrested from a LeT-owned seminary in Karachi.
In late 2001, US officials investigating the activities of Osama bin Laden discovered that the al-Qaeda head had contacted some Pakistani nuclear experts for assistance in making a small nuclear device. US officials sought two veteran Pakistani nuclear scientists in particular, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid, for interrogation. The two admitted working in Afghanistan in recent years, but said they had only been providing "charitable assistance" to Afghans.
Mahmood was no low-level scientist. He was one of Pakistan's foremost experts in the secret effort to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. In 1999 he publicly said that Pakistan should help other Islamic nations build nuclear weapons.
He also made some public statements in support of the Taliban movement. After more interrogation, both Mahmood and Majid admitted that they had met with bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri during their visits to Afghanistan and held long "theoretical" discussions on nuclear weapons.
Then the trail went cold. After months in Pakistani custody, both Mahmood and Majid were quietly released. Fearing that Mahmood's charity organization, Ummah Tameer e-Nau, could be a front for al-Qaeda, the US government placed the entity in its terrorist list and designated Mahmood himself "a global terrorist".
He is perhaps most famous for his part in the development of the Pakistani nuclear industry. In Pakistani nuclear circles he is considered to be the main architect of Pakistan's atomic bomb[citation needed]. In 1971 he invented an instrument, the SBM probe, to check heavy water leaks in nuclear power plants which is still used world wide.[citation needed] Mahmood was also in the news after his 2001 arrest in Pakistan for allegedly having contacts with the Taliban. During this time, he was questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency, although what actually happened is unsure, as Pakistani officials deny this. In the book 'The Man From Pakistan' investigative journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins have written that Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood went to Taliban headquarters in Kandahar in mid-August 2001 and spent three days with bin Laden who was keen on acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
Two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists create a charity to help the Taliban. The scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudiri Abdul Majeed, had both retired the year before after long and distinguished careers, and had both become radical Islamists. They set up a charity, Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), purporting to conduct relief work in Afghanistan, including helping to guide the Taliban on scientific matters. A number of pro-Taliban Pakistani generals and business leaders are on the board of directors, including Hamid Gul, a former director of the ISI. But not long after setting up an office in Kabul, the two scientists meet with Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, and discuss weapons development. During a later visit, Mahmood provides one of bin Laden’s associates with information on how to construct a nuclear weapon.
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The two scientists will have a more extensive meeting with bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in August 2001, and will discuss how al-Qaeda can make a radioactive weapon (see Mid-August 2001). Shortly before 9/11, the CIA will learn of this meeting (see Shortly Before September 11, 2001), and also learn that UTN offered to sell a nuclear weapon to Libya, but the CIA will take no effective action against the group (see Shortly Before September 11, 2001). In late 2001, the Wall Street Journal will report that “One Pakistani military analyst said it was inconceivable that a nuclear scientist would travel to Afghanistan without getting clearance from Pakistani officials and being debriefed each time. Pakistan maintains a strict watch on many of its nuclear scientists, using a special arm of the Army’s general headquarters to monitor them even after retirement.” Furthermore, a former ISI colonel says the ISI “was always aware of UTN’s activities and had encouraged Dr. Mahmoud’s Afghanistan trips. He said the ISI learned last year that Dr. Mahmoud had recently discussed nuclear matters with Mr. bin Laden, and Dr. Mahmoud agreed not to do so again.” [Wall Street Journal, 12/24/2001] The US will finally freeze UTN’s assets in December 200
A recent analysis by US nuclear experts David Albright and Holly Higgins found strong evidence that Pakistani nuclear scientists Sultan Mahmood and Abdul Majid "provided significant assistance to al-Qaeda's efforts to make radiation dispersal devices". Therein lies the most overlooked Pakistani threat - the knowledge in the heads of nuclear experts sympathetic to the jihad movement, and jihadi groups with weapons-of-mass-destruction ambitions such as LeT operating secure facilities and training camps in Pakistan with only the most minimal of restraints.
In December 2001, the New York Times reported that while US authorities were investigating Mahmood and Majid, they found some links between al-Qaeda and two other Pakistani nuclear scientists, Suleiman Asad and Muhammed Ali Mukhtar. Both Asad and Mukhtar had long experience at two of Pakistan's most secret nuclear-weapons-related installations.
Maulana Masood Azhar is the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and is also wanted by Interpol. Like LeT, JeM is said to have close links with the ISI, which has used the groups to wage a proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir.
Like Hafiz Saeed, Azhar was numbered among the veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war. He was educated at Jamia Binoria, a madrassa (religious school) in Karachi that also served as a recruitment center for the mujahedeen.
He later became a leader of Karkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistani militant group, and was captured by India in Kashmir in 1994. He was tried and acquitted, but spent six years in jail before being freed in exchange for the release of the crew and passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999. He formed JeM after returning to Pakistan.
Hafiz Saeed is the founder of LeT.
He travelled to Peshawar to join the CIA-backed effort to overthrow the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan. Peshawar served as the command base for both the CIA and Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK). Haiz Saeed became the protégé of Abdullah Azzam, who, along with Osama bin Laden, founded MAK to recruit and train foreign fighters to join the mujahedeen. The CIA worked closely with the ISI to finance, arm, and train the mujahedeen.
By about 1988, MAK had been evolved into the group known as al-Qaeda by bin Laden. The name “al-Qaeda” literally means “the base”, and may either refer bin Laden’s base of operations for the mujahedeen war effort or the actual database of names of jihadist recruits. While numerous terrorist attacks have been attributed to al-Qaeda over the years, it isn’t so much a centralized organization as a loose network of individuals and affiliate groups having roots or otherwise associated with the CIA-backed effort against the Soviet Union.
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Dec92008/scroll20081209105652.asp?section=frontpagenews
http://www.adl.org/terrorism/symbols/lashkaretaiba.asp
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023706.php
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17882/#5
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-56642.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/washington/26brfs-SENTENCEINTE_BRF.html?_r=2
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/2143362/posts
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul102007/national2007070911902.asp
The Mumbai massacre is a sad reminder that the unresolved Kashmir dispute is the tinderbox of South Asia.
* Origin of the Kashmir dispute
In 1947, British India was partitioned between Muslims and Hindus. The law of partition, however, did not settle the future of more than five hundred semi-independent princely states, including the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The law allowed each princely state to decide for itself. Due to their geographical compulsions, most states had no choice but to join India or Pakistan.
However, a dramatic anomaly bedeviled the accession of two princely states. The predominantly Hindu state of Junagadh was ruled by a Muslim prince who opted to join Pakistan. India sent its military forces to annex Junagadh, arguing that the people, and not the prince, must decide the question of accession. Ironically, the predominantly Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir was ruled by a Hindu prince who opted to join India. India happily accepted the princely accession.
A militarily weak Pakistan could not take Jammu and Kashmir by force. A militarily strong India, which relied on the peoples' choice to take Junagadh, has since refused to apply the same logic to settle the Kashmir dispute.
* Internationalization of the Kashmir dispute
Over the years, the United Nations Security Council has passed several resolutions in a bid to settle the Kashmir dispute. In 1948, the Security Council passed Resolution 47, which became the principal source for resolving the Kashmir dispute.
The Resolution recognized “that the question of accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.” No such plebiscite was ever held, forcing India and Pakistan to engage in periodic wars. Rebuffing the Security Council Resolution, India gradually shifted away from its commitment to hold an internationally supervised plebiscite.
A frustrated Pakistan resorted to war in 1965 to settle the Kashmir dispute. India defeated Pakistan and through mediation of the Soviet Union forced Pakistan to sign the 1966 Tashkent Declaration, a treaty that effectively partitioned Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
In 1971, India played a key role in breaking up Pakistan. Instead of acquiring Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan lost more than half of its population and territory to the new state of Bangladesh.
Furthermore, India forced Pakistan to sign the Simla Agreement, a treaty under which the Kashmir dispute would be resolved through bilateral negotiations. Thus, India finally removed the Kashmir dispute from the international forum. After the Simla Agreement, the Security Council was no longer interested in resolving the Kashmir dispute. A dysfunctional bilateralism produced no settlement either.
During the Cold War, even though Pakistan sided with the United States in ousting the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, the United States showed little interest in resolving the Kashmir dispute. As the Cold War ended, the United States abandoned Pakistan and instead began to woo India as an economic and possibly a military partner against China.
Pakistan, now completely on its own and nursing the wounds of betrayal, resorted to fomenting resistance in the Indian-held Kashmir. Pakistan’s option to keep the Kashmir dispute alive through state-sponsored militancy crashed to ground in the post 9/11 world in which all freedom fighters are now labeled as terrorists. Meanwhile, both India and Pakistan developed nuclear weapons, creating a dangerous stalemate in South Asia.
"Lashkar-e-Taiba has no link or relation with the Taliban or al Qaeda but we are fighting India's illegal occupation of Kashmir," Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar, told Reuters by telephone.
"Our struggle will continue until Kashmir gains freedom."
"India is trying to malign Lashkar-e-Taiba and other mujahideen groups fighting in Kashmir but they will not succeed because the people of Kashmir are with us," Ghaznavi said.
"Lashkar-e-Taiba is purely a Kashmiri militant organisation and has nothing do with any Pakistan leader."
In the Pakistani Kashmir capital Muzaffarabad, police on Friday raided an office, two schools and a religious seminary run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity regarded as a Lashkar front. The U.N. has put the charity on its terrorist list too.
Surviving Gunman In Mumbai Attacks Is Formally Charged
India Also Indicts 2 Pakistani Officials
A Mumbai police officer carries one of the bundles containing pages of a charge sheet of the Nov. 26 terror attacks to a court in Mumbai, India, Wednesday. Feb. 25, 2009. Investigators charged the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai attacks with 12 crimes on Wednesday, including murder and waging war against India. The charges, a several-thousand page document also included Kasab's confession, detailed accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
A Mumbai police officer carries one of the bundles containing pages of a charge sheet of the Nov. 26 terror attacks to a court in Mumbai, India, Wednesday. Feb. 25, 2009. Investigators charged the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai attacks with 12 crimes on Wednesday, including murder and waging war against India. The charges, a several-thousand page document also included Kasab's confession, detailed accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) (Rajanish Kakade - AP)
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam shows charge sheet of Nov. 26 terror attacks outside a court in Mumbai, India, Wednesday. Feb. 25, 2009. Investigators charged the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai attacks with 12 crimes on Wednesday, including murder and waging war against India. The charges, a several-thousand page document also included Kasab's confession, detailed accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam shows charge sheet of Nov. 26 terror attacks outside a court in Mumbai, India, Wednesday. Feb. 25, 2009. Investigators charged the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai attacks with 12 crimes on Wednesday, including murder and waging war against India. The charges, a several-thousand page document also included Kasab's confession, detailed accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) (Rajanish Kakade - AP)
People gather outside a court where the trial of Nov. 26 terror attacks takes place in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009. Investigators charged the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai attacks with 12 crimes on Wednesday, including murder and waging war against India. The charges, a several-thousand page document also included Kasab's confession, detailed accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
People gather outside a court where the trial of Nov. 26 terror attacks takes place in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009. Investigators charged the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai attacks with 12 crimes on Wednesday, including murder and waging war against India. The charges, a several-thousand page document also included Kasab's confession, detailed accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) (Rajanish Kakade - AP)
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 26, 2009; Page A08
Surviving Gunman In Mumbai Attacks Is Formally Charged
India Also Indicts 2 Pakistani Officials
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 26, 2009; Page A08
NEW DELHI, Feb. 25 -- The lone surviving gunman from last year's Mumbai attacks was charged Wednesday with "waging war against India," along with murder and 11 other crimes -- the first formal charges in the deadly three-day rampage in the country's financial capital.
The 60-hour siege of two popular hotels, a cafe, a Jewish center and other sites in Mumbai left more than 170 people dead, including six Americans. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, waving the 11,280-page charge sheet, told reporters that it contains accounts of more than 2,000 witnesses. It names about three dozen other people alleged to have helped plan the attacks.
"The crime branch has done good work during the investigation. It is a mammoth charge sheet," Nikam said.
India has accused Pakistan of hindering the investigation. But Pakistan appears to have cooperated in recent weeks after stepped-up international pressure, diplomats in New Delhi said.
The charge sheet contains evidence provided by the FBI, which aided in the probe. Analysts here say that the FBI would be a likely go-between for India and Pakistan during the ongoing investigation. They say it is doubtful that Pakistan would allow Indian detectives into the country.
The charge sheet includes transcripts of reported phone calls between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan, as well as images from video footage of the attack sites. The list of charges against Kasab is thorough: He is even cited for entering a train station without a ticket.
In addition, two Indian nationals, Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin, are accused of providing maps for the attacks. The two suspects, accompanied by their attorneys, were wearing black hoods when they were escorted into the courtroom.
Nine other assailants were killed during the attacks that brought India's most populous city to a standstill and prompted prayer vigils from Israel to Virginia. India has blamed the attack on Lashkar-i-Taiba, or Army of the Pious, an Islamist militant group widely thought to be a creation of Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s. Pakistan blamed the assault on "non-state actors," countering India's assertion that officials in Pakistan's intelligence services were involved.
Pakistan acknowledged earlier this month for the first time that the Mumbai attacks were at least partially plotted on its soil and announced criminal proceedings against eight suspects, including one it described as the ringleader, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who was among those arrested in Pakistan.
News channels across India still show footage from the attacks: the burning Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and Oberoi Trident hotels, the phalanx of black-clad special forces teams, the closed-circuit television images of the attackers spraying gunfire at the city's main train station.
Since the attacks, hotels across India have started to look like fortresses, with cars and guests made to undergo a gamut of security checks. At the Taj hotel, where the siege ended in a fiery shootout, security guards are posted on each floor. A memorial is set up in the lobby, with a large stone tablet bearing the names of guests and hotel staff members who died in the assault.
Nikam, the special prosecutor, said he would try to wind up the trial within six months, an uncommonly short deadline in a country where trials often drag on for years.
Experts here say the trial could become more complicated, with Pakistan sending to India a list of 30 questions about fingerprints and DNA samples of all the attackers.
Analysts in India's capital said the case will be a test of Pakistan's sincerity about helping determine who is behind the attacks. Brajesh Mishra, a former Indian national security adviser, said he was skeptical.
"The pressure needs to stay on Pakistan to the very last day this gets solved," Mishra said. "If the terror tap is not turned off, if this is not stopped, there will be another attack. And then there will be a war."
UN chief Ban Ki-moon is also expected to discuss various regional and international issues, including the situation in Afghanistan and the Mumbai attacks in November last year, the foreign office said.
New Delhi blamed the attacks in Mumbai, which left 165 people dead, on the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba which is active in Indian-ruled Kashmir, but the Pakistan-based organisation has denied responsibility.
Pakistan says the lone surviving Mumbai gunman, now in Indian custody, is a Pakistani citizen but has insisted the attackers were "non-state actors".
In a related issue, Ban is expected to discuss the implementation of a UN Security Council sanctions committee statement accrediting four members of LeT and a charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely viewed as its political arm.
Vowing to "fulfil its international obligations," Pakistan detained scores of Dawa officials and ordered its assets frozen after the UN Security Council in December moved to list the charity as a terror group.
See Topic Media Coverage/Apologies
Weblog Archive
Unconditional Withdrawal of my post "Shoddy Journalism" dated November 27th 2008
Mon, 26 Jan 2009 at 00:00 • Chyetanya Kunte
Re: Terror Attacks in Mumbai
PostPosted: 23 Dec 2008 02:41 am
NAGPUR: In a development that could help connect the dots between terror attacks across the country, including the LeT-led November 26 siege of Mumbai, Maharashtra's anti-terrorist squad is questioning Amir Talha, a SIMI activist from Azamgarh, who was in close touch with the Indian Mujahideen that executed serial blasts in Delhi in September.
Cops say they have evidence to connect Talha, who was employed with a Hyderabad IT firm, to earlier terror attacks in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur for which responsibility was claimed by the Indian Mujahideen.
If Talha is found to have connections with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, it will cement India's case about the outfit's links with IM as well as bring out for the first time the local connect of the 10 sea-borne terrorists who attacked Mumbai.
It was a quick, well-planned operation that helped ATS net Talha, son of an Azamgarh cleric and suspected activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, on Saturday.
The 22-year-old had boarded the Patna-Secunderabad Express for Hyderabad when he was arrested on platform No 3 at Nagpur station where he had got off for a bite.
The ATS team boarded the train, which was running eight hours late, at Betul in Madhya Pradesh. First, the ATS spotted another man on berth no. 12 in AC-3 B-1 coach, the seat alloted to Talha. The sleuths then started scanning all coaches. Although Talha was being tailed from Varanasi, he had managed to hoodwink the ATS by moving to another coach.
"The ATS team finally spotted Talha in S-10. He was surrounded by 'friends'. We kept him under watch and nabbed him when he got off at Nagpur. Initially, he denied his identity," said a senior officer. Talha, who was produced before a Nagpur court, has been remanded in police custody until January 3. A .32mm pistol (inscribed ENGALA D982610) and five bullets were recovered from him.
Cops said Talha had a VIP quota ticket which he had obtained with a recommendation from BSP MP from Shahbad, Iliyas Azmi. Talha is the son of Amir Rashidi Madni and Rizwana Aamir. Rashidi, who heads an ulema council in Azamgarh, is also believed to have been held in connection with SIMI activities in the past. Talha's 16-year-old brother, too, is under police scanner for alleged links to terror outfits.
According to ATS, Talha was in contact with Mirza Shadab Baig, one of the two terrorists who escaped from the Batla house encounter in Delhi in September. Talha reportedly shared his rented room with Baig at Fahad Apartment in Zakir Nagar, Delhi.
Baig later shifted to Batla house where IM mastermind Atiq, alias Bashir, and Mohammed Sajid were killed in an encounter with Delhi Police. Atiq and Talha called each other just before the September Delhi blasts. Soon after Atiq was killed, Talha deleted the call details from his mobile phone.
Talha, whose deeper connections with the Indian Mujahideen are still being probed, worked with an IT major in Hyderabad, but mostly remained away from work for different reasons. After seeking leave for his "exams" from July 17 to 21 this year, Talha kept extending his leave during different festivals. Both Bangalore (July 25) and Ahmedabad (July 26) blasts had taken place when Talha was on leave. On October 31, Talha had approached an orthopaedic clinic in Azamgarh for a medical certificate as he planned to be away from work for 45 days.
Talha had a passport issued on March 4, 2008, from Delhi. The passport (no 97392112) was valid till March 3, 2018. `
`The question is why did an Azamgarh resident get a passport issued from Delhi? How Talha managed to procure the passport and what documents did he furnish, too, remain to be seen,'' said an ATS officer.
New York, December 8:: Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan-based militant group, had the backing of the Islamic nation's spy agency ISI, which shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection to it in the Mumbai Terror attacks, a media report said.
American intelligence and counterterrorism officials were quoted by the New York Times as saying that LeT has quietly gained strength in recent years with the assistance of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has allowed the group to train and raise money while other militants have been under siege.
Officials said though there is no hard evidence yet to link the spy agency to the Mumbai attacks, ISI shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it.
alleged links
January 06, 2009 14:54 IST
On a day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] said the Mumbai [Images] attacks could not have been carried out without the support of official agencies in Pakistan, Intelligence Bureau sources told rediff.com that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency had detailed knowledge of the planning and execution about the November 26 attack in Mumbai.
No terror operation in India is a success unless it is backed by the ISI, the IB sources added.
Piecing together information obtained from the confessions of several terrorists arrested in India, the IB sources said it can prove that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images] could not even have planned the Mumbai attacks without the ISI's blessings, let alone execute it.
For the Mumbai attacks, youngsters identified by the Lashkar's handlers were said to have been trained at camps in Muridke and Thakot, in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The IB sources said intercepts suggest that every aspect of the training process was supervised by ISI agents and an army officer.
Terrorists who carry out attacks in Kashmir and Afghanistan are trained by ISI officers and army personnel, the IB officers said.
After completing the training programme in Thakot, the Lashkar, with the ISI's help, sent the Mumbai attackers to Karachi where they underwent naval training.
This operation was supervised by the Musa company of the Pakistan navy's Special Services Group.
The Musa company, under the ISI's supervision, imparted training in rough weather sailing.
IB agents said on its own, the Lashkar could not have carried out an operation with such precision. The fighting skills demonstrated in the Mumbai attacks revealed that the training was extremely sophisticated and this could only have been achieved with the Pakistan army [Images] and the ISI's sanction.
Sabahuddin Ahmed, the terrorist arrested for the January 1, 2008, attack on the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force in Uttar Pradesh's [Images] Rampur district, told his interrogators that the ISI presence was visible at every stage of his interaction in Pakistan.
In his confession he said he had met several ISI officers and others from the Pakistan army. 'During one meeting with a Colonel Kiyani, I was asked if I wanted to join the ISI and help collect intelligence. I did not say anything at that time,' he told his interrogators.
Ahmed revealed that the ISI is extremely generous when its officers are pleased with an individual. 'The ISI was pleased with the work I was doing. Kiyani was so happy that on seeing me he pulled out Rs 25,000 and gave it to me,' an IB source quoted him as saying. Whether the Kiyani Ahmed referred to could have been Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was formerly the ISI director, the IB source would not confirm to this correspondent.
Sources said Ahmed disclosed that every would-be jihadi is 'received in Pakistan by the ISI. First we are taken to a camp where the ISI officers host a meal for us. We are then taken in their vehicle and dropped off at the Lashkar camp,' he is said to have told his interrogators.
ISI role in 26/11 suspected, Islamabad told
6 Jan 2009, 0322 hrs IST, ET Bureau
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NEW DELHI: India on Monday confronted Pakistan with tell-tale evidence of the complicity of its citizens and its semi-rogue ISI in the attack on Mumbai and, once again, asked Islamabad to hand over 26/11 suspects, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Lashkar-e-Toiba leaders Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah among others.
Pakistan ambassador Shahid Mallik was summoned to South Block by foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon to hand over proof collected and corroborated by various investigating agencies.
New Delhi made it known to Islamabad that it suspected the role of ISI in the Mumbai terror plot. “The relationship between Lashkar-e-Toiba and the ISI has been historical. It is a very fine line to draw between state actors and non-state actors. Whoever is responsible has to pay,” Mr Shivshankar Menon said. “We will follow evidence wherever it leads. It is hard to believe something of this scale, which amounts to commando operation, would occur without anyone in the establishment knowing. We are not going to say this is where the line ends. We have to continue with the investigations,” Mr Menon added. Sources said former DG of Pakistan’s ISI, Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, knew about the plot to attack Mumbai by the marine jihadis.
Mumbai attacks:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Mumbai (PTI): Mumbai police will take at least another 10 to 15 days to file the chargesheet in connection with the November 26 terror strikes, a senior Crime Branch official said here on Tuesday.
"We will take at least another 10 to 15 days to file the chargesheet into the Mumbai attacks. Since we have applied various acts like UAPA Act, Customs Act and other sections of Indian Penal Code against terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, some legal process is still underway at the state and central government level," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.
"We will file the chargesheet within stipulated 90-days period," he added.
Earlier, the police had set itself a deadline to file the chargesheet before January 24 but it could not meet their deadline.
In the chargesheet, Kasab, whose Pakistani identity has been acknowledged by Islamabad, will face charges ranging from murder, attempt to murder and theft to waging war against the country under UAPA Act and Customs Act.
The Maharashtra government has already decided to set up a special court to conduct the trial.
The chargesheet will cover mainly Kasab's conversation with his handlers in Pakistan, his interrogation report besides eyewitnesses who saw him spraying bullets on the night of November 26 last.
The chargesheet is also likely to name Yosuf Muzzamil and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the main Lashkar operatives, who had allegedly handled the terrorists during the siege.
If their names figure, they will be against column two of the chargesheet (those who could not be brought for trial) which will enable the police to seek a non-bailable warrant against them and subsequently an Interpol Red Corner Notice.
India has been exerting diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to handover the suspects, including Muzzamil and Lakhvi, to it for questioning in the case.
Mumbai Police also decided to club all the 12 cases registered on the intervening night of November 26 and November 27.
Kasab, along with nine others, came through the sea route into the Indian waters and indulged in shooting at various places including Taj Mahal Hotel, Nariman House, Oberoi Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station that killed more than 180 people.
The other accomplices of Kasab were killed during the gun battle with Mumbai police and National Security Guards (NSG).
Suspected perpetrator(s)
Controversial;
suspects include many terrorist outfits of Pakistan origin- the previously unknown Deccan Mujahideen, the Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Al Qaeda
There were roughly 25 people, sometimes more, in each camp, said Deven Bharti, a police commissioner in Mumbai. Whether some of them were being prepared for other attacks on other targets.
Mr. Kasab received training in handling arms, navigating the sea and survival techniques. He was shown Google Earth maps and video images of his targets. At one of the sessions, he told interrogators, Mr. Saeed, the Lashkar leader, gave a motivational speech, covering a host of pan-Islamic grievances from Palestinian territory to Iraq to Kashmir.
Kasab has revealed details of several LeT training camps in PoK and other locations—Danna, Abdul-Bin-Masud, Mangla Dam and Um-Al-Qura in Muzaffarabad and Badli in Kotli. The LeT, he told interrogators, has opened two new camps for handpicked cadre to train them for suicide missions at Akas in Muzaffarabad and another camp in an area known as "Point". His team, he says, was trained in marine commando tactics for weeks in an isolated place off the coast of Karachi. The trainers, Kasab feels, were retired military commandos. A former US Pentagon official has also stated that former Pakistani military officials had trained the terrorists.
Ghulam, a 51-year-old former Lashkar-e-Taiba member who asked that only his first name be used, says that after his camp training in the early 1990s, he was sent to help the group's fighters in Kashmir. A Pakistani who now lives in Lahore, Ghulam says he carried weapons, ammunition, clothes and food to hideouts and safe houses across the Line of Control, the de facto border between India's and Pakistan's parts of the Himalayan region. Once, he said, his group was fired on by Indian forces as they headed back toward the line, and Pakistani soldiers opened fire to give them cover.
Maritime capability:
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is well-known throughout the intelligence community to possess a maritime capability. I used to work for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as a counter-terrorism analyst. a zodiac boatEven though LeT isn’t explicitly interested in targeting the United States, terrorist networks - no matter how closely they’re affiliated with one another - watch other groups’ innovations and copy the successful ones. Therefore, we monitored LeT.
Because the high seas provide an additional layer of stealth - ie, searching for a small suspected vessel can be like looking for that needle in the haystack - groups that successfully employ a maritime component to an attack tend to re-use it. Al Qaeda, for example, first attempted to attack the USS THE SULLIVANS in Yemen in 2000. They failed, but learned from their mistakes and went on to attack the USS COLE and MV LIMBURG in 2000 and 2002, respectively.
The “mothership” concept - a larger vessel in transported smaller zodiac boats across a large body of water - has gotten a lot of attention in the media as well. Here again, terrorists copy one another - off the top of my head, Somali pirates used the concept off the Horn of Africa in 2005.
Possible trial run
March 2007 in the waters off Mumbai the crew of an Indian coast guard vessel noticed a fishing cutter coming from the north.
When the officers stopped the boat, they found, in addition to the crew, eight young Pakistani men who had no business being in Indian territorial waters. The men were so intent on being allowed to continue to Mumbai, that they offered the Indian officials a bribe.
The Indians took the money and allowed the eight Pakistanis to continue, but they were not truly corrupt. Instead, they quickly placed a small homing device on board the fishing boat and notified Indian intelligence.
A short time later, the Pakistanis were apprehended and questioned. The intelligence agents soon realized that they were dealing with Islamists from the Pakistani organization Lashkar-e Taiba. But they never learned what the men were doing in India.
Today, more than one-and-a-half years later, Indian intelligence agents are connecting the dots between that incident and last week's attacks in Mumbai. They believe that the Islamists may have been on a test run to figure out the best way to bring a certain number of men from Pakistan to Mumbai by sea
That trip was probably a dress rehearsal for the attack that began last Wednesday evening. It ended in more than 170 dead and almost 300 wounded, after Mumbai was attacked by at least 10 Islamists. They arrived in inflatable boats, wore athletic shoes, trendy cargo trousers and backpacks -- young men who looked like backpacking students.
The Indian intelligence report claims the Mumbai gunmen were among a large group of volunteer “fedayeen” trained in commando tactics by Pakistan army and navy instructors over 18 months from December 2006.
“The training of these 500 men was in three phases. The first was basic physical fitness and firearms training. The second was marine navigation and swimming. The third involved training to sabotage underwater installations such as oil rigs, ships and submarines,” said one official.
“They were trained to a level of US Seals or Pakistani marine commandos. They were elite. Ten of these men were the ones who attacked Mumbai.”
If true, this training would have been in addition to later preparation said to have been given by LeT, the Al-Qaeda-linked group allegedly behind the attacks. The group was created with ISI support in the 1990s to fight in Afghanistan and Indian-administered Kashmir.
New Methodolgy
Beyond any doubt, the Mumbai operation was planned, premeditated and executed by terrorist teams functioning under a command and control apparatus that orchestrated their deployment and coordinated their assaults. In this key respect, the attacks diverge significantly from the pattern of a lone suicide bomber entering a hotel ballroom or riding a subway car and blowing himself up, or of simple home-made bombs surreptitiously planted hours before they explode and triggered from a distance by timed or remote-control detonators.
Mumbai saw disciplined teams of well-armed, well-trained terrorists simultaneously spreading throughout the city to execute their mission at least ten different targets. In each case, they stood their ground and inflicted the carnage and bloodshed they were doubtless trained to accomplish. And, in the cases of the assaults on the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and Oberoi hotels, not only effectively resisted counterattack by Indian security forces, but impeded and inflicted serious losses on those forces—including the deaths of the city’s top police counterterrorist commanders.
Bruce Hoffman
12.01.2008
Bruce Hoffman is a contributing editor to The National Interest and a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is also the author of Inside Terrorism (2006).
A.N. Roy, director general of the state police in Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, said in an interview that police believe elements of Pakistan's military and the ISI played a role in preparing the attacks.
Mr. Roy said that Mr. Kasab, 21 years old, has told interrogators that trainers who appeared to be in active military service had helped with marine combat, weaponry and explosives training at a camp Mr. Kasab attended. Mr. Kasab said he believed the trainers to be active-duty army and navy personnel because they were wearing uniforms and had badges with names and ranks, Mr. Roy said. "There was nothing secretive about it, nothing to hide," he said.
Another senior Mumbai police official said, however, that police were still investigating Mr. Kasab's allegations and had no confirmation yet that Pakistani military personnel were involved in the training.
Hammad Amin Sadiq
According to police, the men were aged 18 to 28. They were found to have drugs in their system, and traces of cocaine and LSD were found at one or more scenes of their attack, which they apparently had taken for an additional adrenaline boost to keep them going for the long siege and battle with Indian special forces.
Details emerging from investigations following the attacks reveal that among their arsenal of weapons included a cache of ICT gadgets like satellite and mobile, and GPS equipment that were cleverly used to keep battalions of security forces at bay for hours.
Security officials said that the terrorists came from Karachi, Pakistan, by sea and after hijacking a fishing trawler in the Indian waters and killing the trawler’s four-member crew, they navigated their way to their entry point in Mumbai using GPS equipment and a satellite phone.
Security forces found that trawler abandoned near Mumbai along with those gadgets. Their examination has revealed that the terrorists also communicated with the masterminds of the terrorist outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan, the group believed to be behind these attacks.
After reaching Mumbai the terrorists split into groups to head for their different targets and used technology to navigate their way through the intricate lanes of Mumbai.
That’s not all; security forces say that while holed up in the three luxury hotels with hundreds of hostages, the terrorist used mobile phones to communicate with each other, and tracked the movements and advances of the intense offensive against them through websites and Google Earth.
The Mumbai attacks are not isolated instances of terrorists using communication technology to aid their attacks. Two years back, in the US for example, sleuths discovered instructional videos in possession of suspects that demonstrated how to aim rockets at US military bases using Google Earth. And more recently, Google Earth images of British military bases were also found in possession of suspected terrorists in Britain.
Mumbai: Police are grappling with global positioning systems (GPS), satellite phones and Google Earth images on the trail of the Mumbai attackers and finding themselves hobbled by technological inadequacy.
So far, police have found four GPS handsets, one satellite phone, nine mobile phones and computer discs with high-resolution images and maps of the 10 sites that were attacked.
The use of the Internet (SKYPE) to make calls has also hampered the investigation.
"The use of technology has made it very difficult for us," Param Bir Singh, a top officer in Mumbai's anti-terrorism team, told Reuters.
"For the people we are dealing with, money is not a problem, and even the ones that are not very educated are trained in all manner of devices and know how to make interception difficult."
C4I technology
C4I stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence. The ability to have full C4I integration is unarguably the singular element needed to significantly improve tactical, operational and strategic effectiveness. History has proven C4I to be a critical aspect of military and law enforcement actions.
But these lessons have been studied by terrorists who have now integrated C4I into their operational plans. This has become even more evident since Indian authorities announce they discovered five BlackBerry cell phones that forensic experts have discovered were used during the two day siege.
Experts tell us that integrated command, control, communications, computers and intelligence capabilities within the multiple terrorist groups that luanched the Mumbai operation significantly enhanced their abilities and allowed the terrorists to coordinate their sinister efforts. The terrorist used the live TV streams and news broadcasts from Indian and foreign media to their advantage during the two day siege. By monitoring these broadcasts, they were able to have near real time surveillance of what was going on the thwart their attacks
Application
C4I is fine but it's not applicable to what happened in Mumbai. The Terrorists have mastered C4 long ago and are now operating on RIP. For those who are unaware of what RIP is, like most of the U.S. Intelligence community it means Reconnaissance, Information (not Intelligence) and Planning.
Since 9/11 the Terrorists have out performed the United States in the area of using information and panning events. The C 4 is mostly technology which the U.S. is good at, but in basic reconnaissance, gathering relative information and formulating a WORKABLE plan, well we are at a loss.
Voip
VoIP and tech's murky role in Mumbai attacks
December 3, 2008 — 12:38pm ET | By Doug Mohney
Reports out of Mumbai claim the 10 member Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist attack group was steeped in off-the-shelf consumer technology. The FBI is reportedly assisting Indian intelligence agencies in deciphering "Internet telephony signatures" originating in Pakistan.
Terrorist controllers/handlers in Pakistan used VoIP to communicate with the Mumbai attack cell, with calls flowing out of Pakistan to satellite phones carried by the group. Conducting traffic analysis - number of calls, type of calls, frequency, and length - on the communications stream between Pakistan and Mumbai seems to have occurred, but it is not clear if Indian authorities have access to any media streams - the actual verbal conversations -- of calls.
Using VOIP
According to Rakesh Maria, the Joint Commissioner of Police and a lead investigator in the Mumbai attacks, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD, a charity and front organization for LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was also involved with Lakhvi, Hamza and Kahfa in the Mumbai plot, from planning to execution (Press Trust of India, December 10). Earlier, government sources claimed that the investigators had “incontrovertible proof” of the names of the ISI handlers and trainers and the locations in Pakistan where the terrorist training was carried out. Police also claimed to have recovered some of terrorists’ communications through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) (The Hindu, December 5). With the help of foreign investigating agencies, especially the FBI, Mumbai police tracked the VoIP number brought from Orlando, Florida, which was used by the terrorists to talk to Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, who is currently under detention in Pakistan along with 20 other LeT and Jaysh-e-Mohammed operatives
Taliban usesS kype Voip
Days after the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., British intelligence reported that the Taliban is using Skype to coordinate its military operations because the VoIP calls are heavily encrypted and difficult to decode. Previously, the British military and the U.S. military had intercepted Taliban communications with relative ease, because they used satellite or normal mobile phones easily traceable by British observation planes and U.S. intelligence resources.
The Skype algorithm is reportedly proving to be quite difficult to crack. British military officials have tried to introduce legislation into their Parliament requiring ISPs to track data, but the proposal raised the usual questions about privacy and government snooping on individual civilians.
Coordinated attacks based on VoIP calls are part of the Taliban's more aggressive strategy and reorganization. British officials are reportedly were working overtime with American counterparts to crack Skype encryption on suspected terrorist communications. But, as reported July 25, 2008, Austrian officials implied that Skype calls were quite easy to intercept. If that's the case, British officials need to have a chat with Vienna sooner rather than later.
Data streams
The FBI is apparently providing support to trace back when calls started coming in to the cell phone. While not being publicly discussed, it is likely that a United States National Security Agency "vacuum cleaner" system sucked up the broadcasted satellite phone conversations in some form; it is unknown if the communications were encrypted end-to-end, but if they were, it would provide an additional complication to learning the substance of the communications between Lashker-e-Taiba and its Mumbai cell.
Players on both sides of the terrorist equation - both attackers and defenders - are aware of the use and application of off-the-shelf technologies for attacks. In October, a short report by the U.S. Army 304th Military Intelligence open source intelligence team examined the potential use and application of mobile phone and VoIP technologies by terrorist groups. While the media generally obsessed over the application of Twitter, the report also highlighted the use of GPS, software to change voices in conjunction with VoIP calls, and Google Maps.
Received Aid
Indian and U.S. officials said they believed that one senior Lashkar commander in particular, Zarrar Shah, was one of the group's primary liaisons to the ISI. Investigators in India also are examining whether Shah, a communications specialist, helped plan and carry out the attacks in Mumbai.
"He's a central character in this plot," one U.S. official said.
Yahah
On November 18, RAW intercepted a satellite phone conversation made to a number in Lahore, Pakistan, known to be used by the military commander of LeT known alternatively by the names Yusuf Muzammil or Abu Hurrera, also known as “Yahah”. The caller notified his handlers that he was heading for Mumbai with unspecified cargo.
Navigation
Google Earth
Despite pressure from the Pentagon, Google is now upgrading satellite image data in Google Earth to an even higher resolution. However, Google has hit the ceiling set by government regulations, which cap commercial satellite imagery to a 50-centimeter resolution. Google is re-taking satellite images of the planet surface with a 4300 lbs satellite called GeoEye-1. It is the highest-resolution commercial satellite capable of taking images at a resolution of almost 41 centimeters. On October 7, the satellite captured images of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania in stunning detail.
GeoEye-1 is shared between Google, who sponsored the satellite, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), which paid half the costs associated with its development. Google and the NGA plan to launch Geo-Eye 2 by 2012, which will offer a 25-centimeter resolution. Due to aforementioned government regulations, the satellite image data shown in Google Earth will remain restricted to 50 centimeters.
Concerns
Mumbai Terrorists’ Use of Google Earth Re
by Anthony L. Kimery
Friday, 05 December 2008Extr
---The terrorists [who attacked sites in Mumbai] would not have been able to carry out these attacks had it not been for technology. They were not sailors, but they were able to use sophisticated GPS navigation tools and detailed [digital] maps [and imagery] to sail from Karachi to Mumbai," G. Parthasarathy, an internal security expert at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, told the Washington Post.
The terrorists who attacked nearly a dozen locations in Mumbai, killing more than 150 and injuring hundreds more, studied and used satellite imagery obtained from Google Earth to plan and coordinate their attacks. The terrorists relied in part on CDs containing high-resolution satellite imagery that was obtained from a variety of commercial imagery providers, like Google Earth. --
GPS
December 01, 2008 12:26
Chicago (IL) - The terrorists who attacked several locations in south Mumbai apparently used Google Earth to memorize digital satellite images of the city in order to find their targets and coordinate their attacks. Google is in the process of upgrading the application, but it is clear that privacy and national security advocates will reanimate the discussion whether Google provides too much satellite image data to civilians.
Mumbai terrorists reportedly were instructed to memorize satellite imagery of Mumbai streets displayed in Google Earth so that they could find their targets. Indian officials in charge of investigation discovered this fact during the questioning of the only captured suspect. The police also learned that the terrorists relied on satellite phones and GPS equipment to navigate to their targets.
They carried BlackBerrys, CDs holding high-resolution satellite images, like those used for Google Earth maps, and mobile phones with switchable SIM cards that were hard to track, reports said. They also used satellite phones.
Blackberry
Mumbai Terrorists use Blackberry to stay in touch
by Rob Paterson
November 30, 2008 at 11:21 am
Commandos were not only surprised to find the devices in the terrorists’ rucksacks, but that they used the internet to look beyond local Indian media for information, watching the global reaction in real-time as well.
It’s somewhat striking that the terrorists’ use of BlackBerrys “caught the anti-terrorist forces by surprise.” While perhaps another step forward in the sophistication of their organization, in that it it makes communication more instant than ever, it’s long been reported that terrorist networks use the internet and cellphones for communication. Why wouldn’t they use the same tools that millions around the world use? They don’t all live in caves, you know
Phones
Police are also investigating a possible link to the United States – a mobile SIM card found with the terrorists which possibly came from New Jersey. "Nothing is confirmed, but we are looking at this and have made enquiries with mobile operators," Mr Maria said.
Tracking the calls
23 Dec 2008, 0123 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: The US has endorsed the evidence gathered by Indian agencies about the complicity of Pakistan's state actors in the terrorist attack on Mumbai, in what can result in stepped up international pressure on the Zardari regime to take action against the mentors of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Top US intelligence official John Michel McConell is learnt to have expressed complete satisfaction <snip>, based on FBI's examination of call records of satellite and cellular phones used by Mumbai attackers and their Pakistan-based handlers.
McConell confirmed that one of the numbers logged on the satellite phone the terrorists used while navigating their way to Mumbai belonged to known Lashkar terrorist Abu Al Qama. Indian intelligence officials are familiar with the satellite phone that Qama uses. The US, using its leverage with Sharjah where Thuraya is headquartered, corroborated this fact, and also the fact that Qama was passing instructions to the attackers from Pakistani soil.
India's case about the Pakistan hand has also been borne out by the data the Americans retrieved, using their superior technology, from the damaged mobile phones used by terrorists while they were carrying out the massacres in Taj and Trident hotels. The phones had got severely damaged in the fire that broke out during the gunfight.
Sources said the UK has also passed on electronic intercepts, described by a senior source as "one clinching piece of evidence", to India.
McConell, along with FBI officials who have been camping in India in connection with the probe into 26/11, has held meetings with home minister P Chidambaram, national security advisor M K Narayanan and senior Indian intelligence officials.
Suppliers
Two Calcutta men have been arrested for supplying phones
* December 6, 2008
Indian police have arrested two men in the eastern city of Calcutta suspected of handling mobile phone cards later used by the Mumbai attackers.
A police spokesman said the two were arrested over a fraud investigation, but that they were suspected to have supplied the attackers with the cards.
* December 7, 2008
INDIAN police have arrested two men accused of providing mobile phone cards to the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks, the first known arrests since the siege that left more than 160 people dead 11 days ago.
The two men allegedly provided SIM cards to the group of 10 gunmen who staged the attacks, police official Javed Shahim said.
Mr Shahim said one of the men was from the Indian portion of Kashmir.
Who
The Kashmiri suspect was believed to be a local police officer, according to a police official in Srinagar, Kashmir's biggest city, who declined to be named because the matter was still under investigation.
One of the men,
Tauseef Rahman, allegedly bought SIM cards by providing fake documents, including identification cards of dead people, senior police official Rajeev Kumar said Saturday in the eastern city of Calcutta.
Mr. Rahman, of West Bengal state, later sold them to Mukhtar Ahmed, Mr. Kumar said. Both men were arrested Friday and charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy.
The SIM cards were later used by the gunmen.
Mukhtar Ahmed
Rahman, of West Bengal state, later sold them to Mukhtar Ahmed.
Mr. Ahmed was from the Indian portion of Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region at the root of much of the tension between India and Pakistan, Mr. Kumar said.
Indian authorities believe the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has links to Kashmir, trained the gunmen and plotted the attacks.
Mr. Ahmed was believed to be a local police officer, according to a police official in Srinagar, Kashmir's biggest city. The official declined to be named because the matter was still under investigation
Tauseef Rahman
Tauseef Rahman, allegedly bought SIM cards by providing fake documents,
Uses
Messages
The gunmen also kept in contact with their handlers in Pakistan with cellphones as they rounded up guests at the two hotels, officials say.
The attackers left a trail of evidence in a satellite phone they left behind on the fishing trawler they hijacked near Karachi at the start of their 500-mile journey to Mumbai.
The phone contained the telephone numbers of Muzammil, Lakhvi and a number of other Lashkar operatives, according to a report on the Mumbai siege released Thursday by M. J. Gohel and Sajjan M. Gohel, two security analysts who direct the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London.
The numbers dialed on the phone found on the trawler used to call Muzammil matched the numbers on the cellphones recovered from the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the report says.
AK47
Handguns
Grenades
RDX plastic Explosive
Mobile phones, Blackberry
GPS
? laptops
Each of the 10 gunmen was armed with about a dozen grenades, a 9 mm pistol with two magazines, one AK-47 assault rifle with about seven magazines and 100-150 rounds of ammunition
The weapons used in the attacks, he said, came from a factory based in Punjab Province in Pakistan that is under contract to the Pakistani military, he said.
Detailed markings from the weapons used in Mumbai showed that they came from the Pakistan Ordnance Factories at Wah, in the north of the Punjab province.
The grenades were identical to those used in the 2001 attack on parliament, which further supports charges that the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Toiba was behind the Mumbai assault.
---------------------------------
Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) in Wah city in the north of Pakistan’s Punjab Province — also the source of grenades and explosives used in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, the 2001 Parliament attack and this year’s Kabul embassy attack.
One of the grenades recovered from last week’s attacks, and whose markings were accessed by 'The Indian Express', bears the name ‘EN ARGES’ in bold letters, followed by ‘Spl HG 64’ and the serial number 7-93-003. The Arges brandname belongs to Rheinmetall Waffe Munition, an
Austrian company, and the grenades are manufactured by POF under license for use by the Pakistan Army.
Similar grenades were found to have been used or seized from terrorists involved in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, the 2001 Parliament attack and on the three militants gunned down while trying to attack the RSS headquarters in Nagpur in June 2006.
Captured weapons
Haul: Weapons recovered from the terrorists involved in the Taj Mahal hotel siege.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090719/Massacre-Mumbai-Under-doctors-care-gunman-carried-hospital-attack.html
These are indian army guns - the photo was cropped
Grenades
EN ARGES printed on it.
That corresponds to a brand name belonging to a German company that granted a license to the factory to make weapons for the Pakistani military.
‘EN ARGES’ in bold letters, followed by ‘Spl HG 64’ and the serial number 7-93-003. The Arges brandname belongs to Rheinmetall Waffe Munition,
Previous attacks
India had linked the attacks with Pakistani extremists and ISI. According to the court records, the recovered hand grenades from the Parliament attack have the marking–HE (Spl HGr-84 Gren ARGES, HE 7 93 002). According to report received from Republic of Austria, an Austrian firm had sold machine and tools used in the production of "ARGES" hand grenades to a firm in Pakistan. That means Pakistan also has capability to produce these grenades. Pakistan Defense Forum shows the origin of ARGES HG 84P2A1 hand grenades procured by the Pakistan Army as : Armaturen-Gesellschaft mbH (ARGES), xxx, Austria; Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) & Wah (licensed).
This report says that The recovered grenades are "Urges-84" (ARGES-84) brand and made in China, usually used by Bangladesh Army. The marks in the grenades found are not inscribed (usual norm) but rather painted. Experts say that this means that these were produced to carry out subversive operations.
Similar
the types and origins of the grenades used in the attack on Sheikh Hasina and the AL rally on 21st of August, 2004. The grenades are of ARGES brand, which is patented by an Austrian company "Armaturen Gesellschaft m.b.H." and weighs over one kilogram containing around 36,000 splinters. These detonate within four seconds after removing the clip and thus cannot be thrown outside a radius of 30 yards of the target.
Picture: Clockwise- 1) Grenade found at the scene of attack, 2) the ARGES models 3) Grenade found at Dhaka Central Jail on the following day. (Courtesy the Daily Star)
Guns
Heckeler
Note : While there is s photo of a "confiscated cahe", Indian security photos show them using Hecklers - Question - are these commados weaponms or terrorists weapons?
Heckler & Koch MP5-N sub-machine guns.
An Associated Press photo of the confiscated guns reveals what appear to be Heckler & Koch MP5-N sub-machine guns. The “N” model is a version of the MP5 designed specifically for the U.S. Navy and used by Navy Seals teams.
It's claimed they were used by the terrorists. But no pictures show them using them, just the AK variants. And there are numerous photos of Indian "Black Cat" commandos using what appear to be the same weapon -- probably the MP5 A3, not the "N" model
Proven - guns from Indian Army
See image
Didn't some idiot desi/British media show a close up of that chair stating it to be weapons used by the terrorists? Looks like the NSG guys were resting and the photo of their weapons was published with an imaginative caption.
IIRC somebody did point out at the time that those were MP5s while the terrorists had AK-series knockoffs
Handgun
(7.62 mm)
The automatic pistols are also manufactured in Pakistan, with one of them bearing, in bold letters, the name “Diamond” followed by the manufacturer’s name, “Nedi Frontier Arms Co.” Below it are engravings which read “Peshawar Cal 30” and “7341 NFAC.”
The butt of the pistol also has the symbol of a circumscribed star. Knives with black handles have also been recovered and have the image of a black revolver with Arabic or Urdu text next to it on the blades
AK47
The AK-47 (contraction of Russian: Автомат Калашникова образца 1947 года; Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1947 goda; "Kalashnikov's automatic rifle model of year 1947") is a 7.62 mm assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov in two versions: the fixed stock AK-47 and the AKS-47 (S—Skladnoy priklad) variant equipped with an underfolding metal shoulder stock
---------------------
The AK-47 assault rifles used by the terrorists in Mumbai were manufactured in Russia. One rifle recovered has the trademark symbol of a triangle with an arrow inside it, representing the Izhevsk factory in Izhevsk city, capital of the Udmurt Republic in western Russia, where Mikhail Kalashnikov designed the rifle.
Type 56
Type 56 assault rifle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Type 56 Assault Rifle
Type 56-1, Type 84S, and Type 56
Type Assault rifle
Place of origin People's Republic of China
Service history
In service 1957-1986
Used by See users
Wars Vietnam War, Cambodian Civil War, Sri Lankan Civil War, Soviet war in Afghanistan, Iran–Iraq War, Croatian War of Independence, Serbian-Bosnian War, Kosovo Conflict
Production history
Designed Unknown
Manufacturer Norinco, Bangladesh Ordnance Factory (License-made)
Produced 1956 to present
Number built 10-15 Million
Variants Type 56 Assault Rifle, Type 56-1 Assault Rifle, Type 56-2 Assault Rifle, QBZ-56C Assault Rifle, Type 56-1S, Type 84S rifle
Specifications
Weight Type 56: 3.8 kg (8.38 lb), 3.70 kg (8.16 lb) for Type 56-1, 3.94 kg (8.69 lb) for Type 56-2
Length Type 56: 874 mm (34.4 in), Type 56-1/56-2: 874 mm (34.4 in) / 654 mm (25.75 in)
Barrel length 414 mm (16.3 in)
Cartridge 7.62x39mm M43
Action Gas-operated, rotating bolt
Rate of fire 600-650 round/min [1]
Muzzle velocity 735 m/s (2,411 ft/s)
Effective range 400 m
Feed system 30 round standard
Sights Adjustable iron sights
The Type 56 assault rifle is a Chinese copy of the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle, which has been manufactured since 1956. It was produced by state factory 66 from 1956-73, then by Norinco from 1973 onwards. Originally, the Type 56 was a direct copy of the AK-47, and featured a milled receiver, but starting in the mid-1960s, the guns were manufactured with stamped receivers much like the Soviet AKM. Visually, most versions of the Type 56 are distinguished from the AK-47 and AKM by the fully-enclosed hooded front sight (all other AK pattern rifles, including those made in Russia, have a partially open front sight). Many versions also feature a folding bayonet attached to the barrel just aft of the muzzle.
RDX Explosives
RDX, cyclonite, hexogen, and T4, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. Nomenclature variants include cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine and cyclotrimethylene trinitramine.
POLICE in Mumbai last night discovered and defused explosives at the main railway station, left by militants who struck the city almost exactly a week ago. The explosives were found in a bag when police officials were going through abandoned luggage Chhatrapati Shivaji station.
Forensic
December 13, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Mumbai: Investigations into last month’s deadly Mumbai terror attacks moved a step further when the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) released its crucial report on Saturday pertaining to attacks at Vile Parle and Wadi Bander.
The FSL report confirmed that RDX, improvised explosive devices (IED) and timers were used by the terrorists to carry out the dreaded attacks in those areas.
Mumbai Bombs
Bombs Had Timers Used In Kashmir
2 December 2008
The Times of India
Mumbai: The RDX bombs planted by the terrorists around Mumbai were apparently assembled in the Kuber, the trawler hijacked by the terror team. The timing devices were like the ones commonly used by militants in Kashmir, police said. Investigators said the materials used to make the bombs were found on the Kuber, which the terrorists had used and abandoned. Two bombs had been placed near the front and rear entrances of the Taj, another was placed near the Oberoi, while two were placed in taxis. Police said pink packing material found in the Kuber was similar to material used to wrap the RDX in the bomb kept near the main entrance of the Taj. The police also found on the Kuber rope similar to rope used to fix timers to the bombs. The timers had programmable delay switches that could set a bomb off within a minimum of 8 minutes and 32 seconds and a maximum of 194 days. They are widely used by terrorists in Kashmir, the police said.
Source
The weapons used in the attacks, he said, came from a factory based in Punjab Province in Pakistan that is under contract to the Pakistani military, he said.
----------------------
Detailed markings from the weapons used in Mumbai showed that they came from the Pakistan Ordnance Factories at Wah, in the north of the Punjab province.
----------------------
http://www.pof.gov.pk/
The factory was also the source of grenades and explosives used in several earlier terrorist attacks in India, Barthi said. Those included bombings in Mumbai in 1993; a suicide attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in July, he said.
Investigators discovered the link to the Pakistan factory, Barthi said, after recovering a grenade left by the attackers that had EN ARGES printed on it.
That corresponds to a brand name belonging to a German company that granted a license to the factory to make weapons for the Pakistani military.
One possible collaborator in the plot, the authorities say, was an Indian named Faheem Ahmed Ansari, who was arrested in February in a northern Indian state, Uttar Pradesh, along with two other suspected Lashkar members.
Weapon Factory
Detailed markings from the weapons used in Mumbai showed that they came from the Pakistan Ordnance Factories at Wah, in the north of the Punjab province
Buyers
Owners
Factory Name
EN ARGES printed on it.
That corresponds to a brand name belonging to a German company that granted a license to the factory to make weapons for the Pakistani military.
‘EN ARGES’ in bold letters, followed by ‘Spl HG 64’ and the serial number 7-93-003. The Arges brandname belongs to Rheinmetall Waffe Munition, an
Austrian company, and the grenades are manufactured by POF under license for use by the Pakistan Army
???
http://www.pof.gov.pk/products/handgrenades.htm
A strict practice among the trainers of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the former Lashkar fighter told The Times, was a system of changing the names of the members every few months, so that everyone had layers of names that were discarded over time.
Annita Uddaiya see terrorists
Witness & Terrorist ID missing (Jan12)
Mumbai: The investigations into the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks have suffered a setback after a key eyewitness became untraceable.
The Mumbai Police said on Tuesday that Anita Uddaiya, the woman who had identified the bodies of nine killed Mumbai terrorists, has been missing since January 11.
Anita, 47, had seen the terrorists get off from their boat and land in Mumbai on November 26. She had identified the terrorists’ bodies at the city’s JJ Hospital.
She is now back - see subtopic
Found- About Uddaiya
December 02, 2008
"Fifteen winter jackets were found, fifteen toothbrushes," a police source said.
At Large
AT least five terrorist gunmen might have escaped the carnage in Mumbai and could strike again, it emerged yesterday as a video surfaced showing the capture of the gang's sole known surviving member.
"That more terrorists are loose is possible." Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only gunman to be caught alive, said during police questioning that 24 men were trained in camps in Pakistan for the mission, according to a leaked account of his police interrogation.
New York, Dec 5 (PTI) Five terrorists involved in the Mumbai terror attacks may be still at large, the New York Times reported today, citing evidence found on the trawler on which they travelled from Karachi to India's financial hub.
The newspaper report counters the Mumbai Police which claimed that there were only ten terrorists in the vessel out of which nine were killed and one was arrested.
"Based on evidence found on the trawler, it was possible that five other men were involved in the plot and were still at large," the Times said.
The report also said that Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar-e-Taiba 'commander', was in Karachi for the last three months to help organise the terrorist attack in Mumbai.
The Mumbai attackers also kept in contact with their handlers in Pakistan with cellphones as they rounded up guests at the two hotels -- Taj and Oberoi, it said quoting a Pakistani official in contact with the terror outfit.
The attackers left a trail of evidence in a satellite phone they left behind on the fishing trawler they hijacked near Karachi at the start of their 500-mile journey to Mumbai, the report said.
The phone contained the telephone numbers of Yusuf Muzammil, a LeT militant considered to be mastermind of the Mumbai attack, Rehman and a number of other Lashkar militants, the Times said, citing a report on the Mumbai siege prepared by M J Gohel and Sajjan M Gohel, two security analysts who direct the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London.
The numbers dialed on the phone found on the trawler used to call Muzammil matched the numbers on the cell phones recovered from the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the report said. PTI
Unaccounted for
http://www.newser.com/story/44871/india-20-recruited-with-mumbai-gunmen-at-large.html
20 Recruited With Mumbai Gunmen at Large
(Newser) – Indian police say the 10 Mumbai attackers were among 30 recruits selected for suicide missions—and they don’t know the whereabouts of the rest. There was no indication that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were in India, but the police commissioner says news that others were willing to die—provided by the surviving attacker—was “very disturbing,” reports the New York Times.
Officials also released photos and new details on the weaponry used in last month’s attacks. The recruits received highly specialized training, including marine combat skills, the attacker told police. The 10 who were selected for Mumbai were segregated from others, kept in a house for 3 months, and given target information they kept secret from each other. They never saw the 20 others again.
Source New York Times
How Many
The security forces claimed that only ten militants – nine of whom were killed and one caught alive – were behind the coordinated attacks that claimed nearly 200 lives. Rakesh Maria, a joint commissioner of police, said: “Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves.”
However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift – suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large.
Related Links
* Britain and US rush to mediate on Mumbai attacks
* Security agencies search for scapegoats
* India summons Pakistan envoy to demand action
Multimedia
* Pictures: Mumbai - aftermath
“Fifteen winter jackets were found, fifteen toothbrushes,” a police source said. “That more terrorists are loose is possible
At least five terrorist gunmen might have escaped the carnage in Mumbai and could strike again, it emerged yesterday as a video surfaced showing the capture of the gang’s sole known surviving member.
Deccan Mujahideen
Actuall probably a red herring :
see below---------------
An organisation called the Deccan Mujahideen (DM) is reported to have claimed responsibility in a message sent to the Indian media. Some reports say this message had originated from a computer in Pakistan?
The word Deccan refers to South India and was widely used during the Moghul and British rule. It is now rarely used in India, but in Pakistan it continues to be used widely. Many Pakistanis refer to the Indian Hyderbad as Hyderabad, Deccan, to distinguish it from Hyderabad in Sindh. After independence in 1947, the ruler of the state of Hyderabad, who was known as the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the ruler of the State of Junagadh in Gujarat, who was known as the Nawab of Junagadh, hesitated to join the Indian Federation. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then prime minister, sent the Army into Hyderabad to merge it with India. Junagadh also joined India without the need for using the Army there. Many pro-Pakistan Muslims from Hyderbad fled to Karachi and settled down there.
The LeT has long enjoyed some support from the descendents of some Muslims who migrated to Karachi from Hyderabad and Junagadh. It describes Hyderabad and Junagadh as Pakistani territory illegally occupied by India. One of its objectives is to liberate J&K, Hyderabad and Junagadh from what it describes as Hindu rule. It is possible that some of these Muslims originating from Hyderabad have been constituted by the LeT into an organisation called the Deccan Mujahideen and told to claim responsibility for the Mumbai terrorist strike.
Persons associated
Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for several attacks against civilians in India.
In many of the attacks previously mentioned, a man identifying himself as :
“Arbi Hindi” e-mailed the media to announce the organization’s claims. “Arbi Hindi’s real name is Abdul Subhan Qureshi. An Indian national,.
Qureshi, a computer expert, is believed to have trained hundreds of recruits to conduct terror attacks in India. He is often called India’s Osama bin Laden.”
The group is on nearly every Western terror list.
Deccan Background
Deccan Mujahideen: a new organization or a cover name?
The name Deccan Mujahideen in itself could be significant, as either a statement regarding the origins of the group responsible for the Mumbai attacks or an attempt at disinformation. The name “Deccan”, refers to the Deccan Valley, a plateau in central India just to the east of Mumbai, hinting that that the group may be indigenous, or homegrown. Greg Barton, an Australian-based professor and expert on counter-terrorism, noted that, “India has a lot of experience in dealing with attacks by separatist groups, Maoists, Marxist groups, Hindu fundamentalists and Islamist extremist groups, but it hasn’t acknowledged dealing with a Jihadi homegrown network and that appears to be happening now. If that’s confirmed, this is a whole new level of challenge.”[iv] For a country that has in the past declared Islamic terrorist activity to be attributed to foreign actors, proof that the Deccan Mujahideen is a homegrown Jihadi militia may announce the a new era of internal strife.
Initial reports from Indian security forces have revealed that the group claiming responsibility for the Mumbai attacks may indeed be a front for Lashkar a-Tayeb (or the “army of believers”), which was established in 1989 by Pakistani intelligence forces. This information became available after the arrest of a suspect involved in the attacks. “Experts believe the main goal of Lashkar a-Tayeb is to destabilize India by damaging its economy and its fragile ethnic mix while fomenting dissent among India’s large Muslim minority. The organization, which is on the list of outlawed terror organization in many countries, seeks to end India’s occupation of Kashmir. Its ideological platform combines anti-Western ideas (which explains its choice of hotels popular with Westerners in its list of targets) with those of global jihad and of hatred toward India.” The group also has strong links to Al Qaeda and is known to have trained at Al Qaeda camps before the American invasion of Afghanistan.[v]
In the past, the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for several attacks against civilians in India. The group claimed credit for the July 25th and 26th bombings in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. The attacks killed 36 Indians wounded more than 120. The group claimed a role in the September 13th attacks in New Delhi that resulted in the deaths of 18 Indians and wounded more than 90. The organization also claimed credit for deadly bombings in Jaipur in May, 2008, which killed 60 and wounded more than 200, and is linked to a bombing in the state of Uttar Pradesh in November, 2007 which killed 14 and wounded 50
Linked to LET
By GEETA ANAND in Mumbai and SIOBHAN GORMAN in Washington
Indian police say they have now linked at least four senior members of a Pakistan-based terror group to the team of gunmen who attacked Mumbai, and a lead investigator made the strongest official accusation yet that elements of Pakistan's military and spy agency played a role in training the attackers.
The police say they are basing their conclusions on the testimony of one captured terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, as well as cellphone and other records related to the case. The attacks killed 171 people over three days and have seriously strained tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, with Islamabad promising cooperation but openly doubting Indian claims of Pakistani involvement.
To help prove their case, Indians are taking the unusual step of letting U.S. and British authorities interrogate their suspect, and say they hope to use genetic testing to prove that Mr. Kasab is from a town in Pakistan.
Where are they From
Alleged Pakistani.
It now appears that all were Pakistani nationals.
Mumbai police said that their evidence of a Pakistan link includes hand grenades manufactured in the city of Rawalpindi, in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls traced back to the country.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they have "verified" that Azam Amir Kasab, who was captured after a shoot-out in a Mumbai railway station on Wednesday night, is from Faridkot, a small village in Pakistan's impoverished south Punjab region. They say that the nine dead gunmen are also Pakistani
Article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1093103/Pictured-The-faces-Mumbai-terrorists-Pakistan-declares-We-ready-war.html?ITO=1490
Clockwise from top left: Bada Abdul Rahman, Abu Ali, Abu Soheb, Isamal Khan, Babar Imaran alias Abu Akasha, Nasir alias Abu Umar, Abdul Rehaman Chota and Fahad Ullah. A photo of the ninth suspect was not released because his body was too badly burned.
Indian Security names attackers
Published Date: 09 December 2008
All nine terrorist gunmen killed during the Mumbai massacre were from Pakistan, India said today.
Chief investigator Rakesh Maria gave the names and the aliases used by the gunmen in the attacks. He also showed photographs of eight of the men – some taken from identity cards, while others were gruesome shots of their corpses.
He said the body of a ninth was too badly burned to be shown.
He also detailed the districts and towns in Pakistan from where the gunmen are believed to have come.
He did not say how police had tracked down their home towns, although police have been interrogating the lone surviving gunman--------------
Maria said the leader of the group was Ismail Khan, 25, from Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, who he called veteran of other Lashkar attacks. He did not provide details.
Khan led the assault on Mumbai's busy railway station.
--------------
The youngest attacker was identified as 20-year-old Shoaib, alias Soheb, who came from Narowal district in Pakistan's Punjab province. He was among those who attacked the Taj Mahal hotel, Maria said. Two came from the central Pakistani city of Multan, Maria said.
---------------
From the hijacked police van.
One of the van's tires went flat, and the gunmen abandoned the vehicle.
They stopped another car, pulled out the driver and drove away, he said.
Jadhav climbed forward and used the police radio to call for backup and tell the authorities what direction the gunmen had gone.
Minutes later, a team of officers blockaded a road lining the coast, and opened fire at the hijacked car. One gunman was killed and another arrested - the only militant to be captured during the entire ordeal.
Azam Amir Qasab/ Kaseb
Suspect named as Azam Amir Qasab
21 years old, fluent English speaker
Told police he is from Faridkot village, in Pakistan's Punjab province
Said the attackers took orders from handlers in Pakistan
Statement of confession
Confessions of a dangerous mind
Nikhil S Dixit
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 03:50 IST
This is the statement Mohammad Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab’, 21, gave to the police after his arrest.
I have resided in Faridkot, Dinalpur tehsil, Ukada district, Suba Punjab state, Pakistan since my birth. I studied up to class IV in a government school. After leaving school in 2000, I went to stay with my brother in Tohit Abad mohalla, near Yadgar Minar in Lahore. I worked as a labourer at various places till 2005, visiting my native once in a while. In 2005, I had a quarrel with my father. I left home and went to Ali Hajveri Darbar in Lahore, where boys who run away from home are given shelter. The boys are sent to different places for employment.
One day a person named Shafiq came there and took me with him. He was from Zhelam and had a catering business. I started working for him for Rs120 per day. Later, my salary was increased to Rs200 per day. I worked with him till 2007. While working with Shafiq, I came in contact with one Muzzafar Lal Khan, 22. He was from Romaiya village in Alak district in Sarhad, Pakistan. Since we were not getting enough money, we decided to carry out robbery/dacoity to make big money. So we left the job.
We went to Rawalpindi, where we rented a flat. Afzal had located a house for us to loot… We required some firearms for our mission... While we were in search of firearms, we saw some LeT stalls at Raja Bazaar in Rawalpindi on the day of Bakri-id. We then realised that even if we procured firearms, we would not be able to operate them. Therefore, we decided to join LeT for weapons training.
We reached the LeT office and told a person that we wanted to join LeT. He noted down our names and address and told us to come the next day. The next day, there was another person with him. He gave us Rs200 and some receipts. Then he gave us the address of a place called Marqas Taiyyaba, Muridke, and told us to go to there. It was an LeT training camp. We went to the place by bus. We showed the receipts at the gate of the camp. We were allowed inside… Then we were taken to the actual camp area. Initially, we were selected for a 21 days’ training regimen called Daura Sufa. From the next day, our training started.
The daily programme was as follows: 4.15 am — Wake-up call and thereafter Namaz; 8 am — Breakfast; 8.30 am to 10 am — Lecture on Hadis and Quran by Mufti Sayyed; 10 am to noon - Rest; Noon to 1 pm - Lunch break; 1 pm to 4 pm - Rest; 4 pm to 6 pm - PT; instructor: Fadulla; 6 pm to 8 pm - Namaz and other work; 8 pm to 9 pm - Dinner
After Daura Sufa, we were selected for another training programme called Daura Ama. This was also for 21 days. We were taken to Mansera in Buttal village, where we were trained in handling weapons.
The daily programme was as follows: 4.15 am to 5 am - Wake-up call and thereafter Namaz; 5 am to 6 am - PT; instructor: Abu Anas; 8 am - Breakfast; 8.30 am to 11.30 am - Weapons training; trainer: Abdul Rehman; weapons: AK-47, Green-O, SKS, Uzi gun, pistol, revolver; 11.30 am to Noon - rest; Noon to 1 pm - Lunch break; 1 pm to 2 pm - Namaz; 2 pm to 4 pm - Rest; 4 pm to 6 pm - PT; 6 pm to 8 pm - Namaz and other work; 8 pm to 9 pm - Dinner.
After the training, we were told that we will begin the next stage involving advanced training. But for that, we were told, we had to do some khidmat for two months (khidmat is a sort of service in the camp as per trainees’ liking). We agreed. After two months, I was allowed to go to meet my parents. I stayed with my parents for a month.
Then I went to an LeT camp in Shaiwainala, Muzaffarabad, for advanced training...
We were taken to Chelabandi pahadi area for a training programme, called Daura Khas, of three months. It involved handling weapons, using hand grenade, rocket launchers and mortars.
The daily programme was as follows: 4.15 am to 5 am - Wake-up call and thereafter Namaz; 5 am to 6 am - PT; instructor: Abu Mawiya; 8 am - Breakfast; 8.30 am to 11.30 am - Weapons training, handling of all weapons and firing practices with the weapons, training on handling hand grenade, rocket-launchers and mortars, Green-O, SKS, Uzi gun, pistol, revolver; trainer: Abu Mawiya; 11.30 am to 12 noon - rest; Noon to 1 pm - Lunch break; 1 pm to 2 pm - Namaz; 2 pm to 4 pm - Weapons training and firing practice; lecture on Indian security agencies; 4 pm to 6 pm - PT; 6 pm to 8 pm - Namaz and other work; 8 pm to 9 pm - Dinner
There were 32 trainees in the camp. Sixteen were selected for a confidential operation by one Zaki-ur-Rehman, alias Chacha, but three of them ran away from the camp.
Chacha sent the remaining 13 with a person called Kafa to the Muridke camp again.
At Muridke, we were taught swimming and made familiar with the life of fishermen at sea… We were given lectures on the working of Indian security agencies. We were shown clippings highlighting atrocities on Muslims in India. After the training, we were allowed to go to our native places. I stayed with my family for seven days. I then went to the LeT camp at Muzaffarabad. The 13 of us were present for training.
Then, on Zaki-ur-Rehman’s instructions, Kafa took us to the Muridke camp. The training continued for a month. We were given lectures on India and its security agencies, including RAW. We were also trained to evade security personnel. We were instructed not to make phone calls to Pakistan after reaching India.
The names of the persons present for the training are: n Mohd Azmal, alias Abu Muzahid n Ismail, alias Abu Umar n Abu Ali n Abu Aksha n Abu Umer n Abu Shoeb n Abdul Rehman (Bada) n Abdul Rehman (Chhota) n Afadulla n Abu Umar
After the training, Chacha selected 10 of us and formed five teams of two people each on September 15. I and Ismail formed a team; its codename was VTS. We were shown Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Google Earth’s site on the internet… We were shown a film on VT railway station. The film showed commuters during rush hours. We were instructed to carry out firing during rush hours — between 7 am and 11 am and between 7 pm and 11 pm. Then we were to take some people hostage, take them to the roof of some nearby building and contact Chacha, who would have given us numbers to contact media people and make demands. This was the strategy decided upon by our trainers. The date fixed for the operation was September 27. However, the operation was cancelled for some reason. We stayed in Karachi till November 23.
The other teams were: 2nd team: a) Abu Aksha; b) Abu Umar; 3rd team: a) Abdul Rehman (Bada); b) Abu Ali; 4th team: a) Abdul Rehman (Chotta); b) Afadulla; 5th team: a) Abu Shoeb; b) Abu Umer.
On November 23, the teams left from Azizabad in Karachi, along with Zaki-ur-Rehman and Kafa. We were taken to the nearby seashore… We boarded a launch. After travelling for 22 to 25 nautical miles we boarded a bigger launch. Again, after a journey of an hour, we boarded a ship, Al-Huseini, in the deep sea. While boarding the ship, each of us was given a sack containing eight grenades, an AK-47 rifle, 200 cartridges, two magazines and a cellphone.
Then we started towards the Indian coast. When we reached Indian waters, the crew members of Al-Huseini hijacked an Indian launch. The crew of the launch was shifted to Al-Huseini. We then boarded the launch. An Indian seaman was made to accompany us at gunpoint; he was made to bring us to the Indian coast. After a journey of three days, we reached near Mumbai’s shore. While we were still some distance away from the shore, Ismail and Afadulla killed the Indian seaman (Tandel) in the basement of the launch. Then we boarded an inflatable dinghy and reached Badhwar Park jetty.
I then went along with Ismail to VT station by taxi. After reaching the hall of the station, we went to the toilet, took out the weapons from our sacks, loaded them, came out of the toilet and started firing indiscriminately at passengers. Suddenly, a police officer opened fire at us. We threw hand grenades towards him and also opened fire at him.
Then we went inside the railway station threatening the commuters and randomly firing at them. We then came out of the railway station searching for a building with a roof.
But we did not find one. Therefore, we entered a lane. We entered a building and went upstairs. On the third and fourth floors we searched for hostages but we found that the building was a hospital and not a residential building. We started to come down. That is when policemen started firing at us. We threw grenades at them.
While coming out of the hospital premises, we saw a police vehicle passing. We took shelter behind a bush. Another vehicle passed us and stopped some distance away. A police officer got off from the vehicle and started firing at us. A bullet hit my hand and my AK-47 fell out of my hand. When I bent to pick it up another bullet hit me on the same hand. Ismail opened fire at the officers in the vehicle. They got injured and firing from their side stopped. We waited for a while and went towards the vehicle.
There were three bodies in the vehicle. Ismail removed the bodies and drove the vehicle. I sat next to him. Some policemen tried to stop us. Ismail opened fire at them. The vehicle had a flat tyre near a big ground by the side of road. Ismail got down from the vehicle, stopped a car at gunpoint and removed the three lady passengers from the car. Since I was injured, Ismail carried me to the car. He then drove the car. We were stopped by policemen on the road near the seashore. Ismail fired at them, injuring some policemen. The police also opened fire at us. Ismail was injured in the firing. The police removed us from the vehicle and took us to the same hospital. In the hospital, I came to know that Ismail had succumbed to injuries.
My statement has been read to me and explained in Hindi, and it has been correctly recorded.
Questrioning
From Times Online
December 3, 2008
Indian police interrogators are preparing to administer a "truth serum" on the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks on Mumbai to settle once and for all the question of where he is from.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they are poised to settle the matter of Kasab's nationality through the use of "narcoanalysis" – a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the subject is injected with a truth serum.
Health
Wed, Feb 04, 2009 at 08:03
Mumbai: The lone terrorist captured alive during the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, is well and alive. CNN-IBN has got an exclusive photograph of Kasab in police custody which rubbish Pakistani reports that the terrorist might be dead.
Mumbai Police refute the Pakistani claim that Kasab is not alive any more and to also prove that his interrogation is still on.
Mumbai police sources tell CNN-IBN that Kasab has been kept in a high-security cell at the Arthur Road Jail and is given three meals a day.
He is given a shave by a barber and is allowed to take a bath once in two days under police watch.
He also undergoes a medical examination every day.
Kasab's custody has been now extended till February 13 and he will be produced before the magistrate for further extension that day.
The exclusive picture available only with CNN-IBN is a proof that Kasab is alive and in good health and Pakistani claims of him being dead is totally false
Interogation Info
he and a partner, Ismail Khan, had abandoned a bag with a 17-pound bomb at Victoria Terminus, also known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the railway station where they began their killing spree. The police recovered the bag on Wednesday.
Admission
The lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, wrote a letter to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi admitting his role and asking for legal help as a Pakistani national, Indian media reported.
Role in Attack
At the station, Mr. Kasab and his partner threw a hand grenade into a crowd, and then opened fire. Moving along separate paths toward the station's main entrance, he and his partner fired as they walked. By the time they left, more than 40 people, including three police officers, were dead.
Cameras caught a young man in a black T-shirt and khaki cargo pants strutting through the station carrying a rifle and blue bag of spare ammunition. The gunmen also turned up at nearby Cama Hospital, shooting two unarmed guards and trading fire with police on the top floor before running outside and hiding behind a bush. Officers returned fire, hitting Mr. Kasab in both arms.
With bullets lodged in both arms, suspected terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Kasab could no longer hold the AK-47 rifle police say he used to kill dozens of people during his three-hour rampage through Mumbai. So he and a partner fled the violent upheaval their fellow terrorists were still causing.
Media on Confession
Mumbai gunman's confession sheds light
By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer Ramola Talwar Badam, Associated Press Writer – 56 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting
India – The gunman captured in last month's Mumbai attacks had originally intended to seize hostages and outline demands in a series of dramatic calls to the media, according to his confession obtained Saturday by The Associated Press.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab said he and his partner, who massacred dozens of people in the city's main train station, had planned a rooftop standoff, but abandoned the plans because they couldn't find a suitable building, the statement to police says.
Kasab's seven-page confession, given to police over repeated interrogations, offers chilling new details of the three-day rampage through India's commercial center that left 164 people plus nine gunmen dead.
He said the assault, which started Nov. 26, was initially set for Sept. 27, though he doesn't explain why it was delayed. The gunmen had been told by their handlers to carry out the attacks during rush hours when the station is teeming with commuters.
After reaching Mumbai, Kasab and his partner, Ismail Khan, the group's ringleader, headed to the train station by taxi.
"Ismail and myself went to the common toilet, took out the weapons from our sacks, loaded them, came out of toilet and started firing indiscriminately toward the passengers," Kasab told police.
As a police officer opened fire, the two militants retaliated with grenades before entering another part of the station and randomly shot more commuters.
The men then searched for a building with a rooftop where they had been told to hold hostages and called a contact named Chacha, whom Kasab identified as Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind behind the attacks.
Chacha, which means "uncle" in Hindi, was to supply phone numbers for media outlets and specify what demands the two should make.
"This was the general strategy decided by our trainers," Kasab said.
Taking heavy fire from police, the two had trouble finding a "suitable building" and stormed a hospital they mistook for an apartment building. There, they searched for hostages and traded more gunfire with security forces. It's unclear if they ever held hostages.
When they left, a police van pulled up and the two tried to take shelter behind a bush during the shootout. Kasab was hit in the hand as Khan returned fire.
"They got injured and the firing from their side stopped," he said.
Police have confirmed the van was carrying top police officials, including the head of the anti-terror squad who was killed.
In the confession, Kasab, 21, describes his conversion from an aspiring street criminal to a loyal soldier for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group banned by Pakistan in 2002 and blamed by India in the attacks.
He came to the organization last year while looking to buy guns to commit robberies after quitting a low-paying job at a catering business. The search led him to several Lashkar "stalls" at a bazaar in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, he said.
Kasab went on to receive rigorous training in weapons handling and other skills, attending at least six Lashkar camps and visiting his parents twice during breaks, he said. Lashkar operatives even lectured recruits on India security and intelligence agencies, and taught them how to evade pursuing security forces.
He said they were shown "clippings highlighting the atrocities on Muslims in India," images of Mumbai locations on Google Earth, and film footage of the train station.
"We were instructed to carry out the firing at rush hour in the morning between 7 to 11 hours and between 7 and 11 hours in the evening," he said. The attacks ultimately started around 9:30 p.m.
After Kasab and nine others were picked among a group of 32 recruits, they headed to Karachi in September and practiced traveling on speed boats.
On Nov. 23, the group was transported to a ship called the Al-Huseini far out at sea.
Shortly after boarding, "each of us was given a sack containing eight grenades, one AK-47 rifle, 200 cartridges, two magazines and one cell phone for communication," he said.
The Al-Huseini's crew, he said, later hijacked an Indian vessel, killing all but one crew member who was temporarily kept alive and held at gunpoint to guide them into Mumbai's coastal waters.
"When we were at some distance from the shore, Ismail and (another militant) killed the Indian seaman" before the group boarded a dinghy and came ashore "per the instructions received earlier."
Police said Saturday that Kasab, who's facing a criminal case in the attacks, has written to Pakistani officials to request legal help.
In a letter written Thursday, he asked for "legal aid" from the Pakistani consulate and requested a meeting with a consular representative, said Rakesh Maria, Mumbai's chief investigator.
The letter was forwarded to India's government to relay to Pakistani officials, but it was unclear whether it had been delivered, Maria said.
Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment.
A number of Indian lawyers — including a prominent group of Mumbai attorneys — have refused to defend Kasab against criminal charges amid outrage over the attacks.
Kasab is being held on 12 offenses, including murder and waging war against the country, but has not yet been formally charged.
Islamabad has refused to acknowledge Kasab's nationality, complaining that India has yet to furnish any evidence.
___
AP Writer Muneeza Naqvi contributed to this report.
He was given an AK-47, a pistol, grenades and 5,400 rupees, about $110.
Mr. Kasab received training in handling arms, navigating the sea and survival techniques. He was shown Google Earth maps and video images of his targets. At one of the sessions, he told interrogators, Mr. Saeed, the Lashkar leader, gave a motivational speech, covering a host of pan-Islamic grievances from Palestinian territory to Iraq to Kashmir.
Mumbai
closed-circuit-television footage of Mr. Kasab's killing spree in Mumbai's main train station. "Look how confident he is. How well-trained he must have been."
At the station, Mr. Kasab and his partner threw a hand grenade into a crowd, and then opened fire. Moving along separate paths toward the station's main entrance, he and his partner fired as they walked. By the time they left, more than 40 people, including three police officers, were dead.
Cameras caught a young man in a black T-shirt and khaki cargo pants strutting through the station carrying a rifle and blue bag of spare ammunition. The gunmen also turned up at nearby Cama Hospital, shooting two unarmed guards and trading fire with police on the top floor before running outside and hiding behind a bush. Officers returned fire, hitting Mr. Kasab in both arms
Who is he
Indian police have a sample of Mr. Kasab's DNA that they plan to provide to the FBI , which would check whether he is from the family he claims as his own in Faridkot village. The bureau would need to compare it with the DNA of any family member.
Home
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7759309.stm
Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner of Crime Rakesh Maria said, information came out from his interview with Kasab that he is from the Faridkot village in the Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab province. He is the son of Mohammed Amir Kasab.[85] Pakistani authorities repeatedly said there was no evidence of such a person in Pakistan. But reporters have visited the village near Depalpur, in Okara district, and identified the parents as named by Mumbai police. Villagers have confirmed that he indeed lived there. On the night of Dec 03, the parents were whisked away by a bearded Mullah, and since then, there was evidence of a cover-up by plainclothes police. Villagers changed their stories, and reporters who visit there are now being roughed up.
Background
Ajmel Amir Kasav
Age : 21 Years
Alias Names : Azam Ameer Qasab,Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman,Ajmal Qasab,Ajmal Amir Kamal,Mohammad Ajmal Qasam,Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasar,Amjad Amir Kamaal
Born at Faridkot village (Dipalpur tehsil, of Okara district in Punjab (Pakistan), 50 Kms from Multan) to Father Mohammed Amir Imran, runs snacks cart which sells dahi-puri. Mother Noori Tai (house-wife) , belongs to Qasai caste.
Ajmal is one of the 5 kids, eldest brother Afzal (25) works as a labourer in Lahore, sister Rukaiyyen Husain (22) is married in village, then comes Ajmal, sister Suraiyya (14) and brother Munir (11) still at home.
Ajmal’s poor father cant keep him in government primary school. In 200 , 13 year old Ajmal who just passed class 4, is sent to Afzal in Lahore. Ajmal shuttles between Lahore and Faridkot. In 2005 , fights with father and leaves home, stays at shrine of holy man Syed Ali Hajveri and works as a labourer.
Finds the work degrading, gets attracted to petty crime, which friend Muzaffer Lal Khan , launches a new career in armed robberies. They wanted to procure more arms for their business, this is time they run into the activists of Jammat-ud-Dawa (politcal wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba). After brief chats, they signs up for the training, initially their plan was to learn more about arms and attack methods in training, which they can use it in the armed robbery.
Once they reached the LeT’s base camp in Markaz, the thought process of Ajmal starts changing after seeing various movies on India’s atrocities in Kashmir, impassioned speeches by by preachers etc., He started beleiving , it might be worth sacrificing his worthless life for glory of islam. Camp gives him sense of belonging that he never had, when he comes hime during a 2 month break, finds he s suddenly treated with respect by family and community.
After this break, Ajmal choosen for LeT’s basic combat course, Daura Aam, does well and choosen with small group of 42 for advanced training , Daura Khaas, at camp near Manshera, due to his performance in the training sessions, he get selected for the marine commando and navigation training , final selected for the fidayeen attack planned on Mumbai.
Family
Residents in the village where Mr. Kasab grew up said he moved out a few years ago, according to a local journalist. His father, Amir, confirmed the gunman as his son after seeing a photograph of him injured after the attacks, the journalist said. His mother burst into tears and kissed the photograph. The elder Mr. Kasab said he hasn't received any money from Lashkar-e-Taiba. "I don't sell my son," he told the journalist.
Dec 12, 2008 at 1639 hrs IST
Though LeT and JuD may disown him, the father of the lone Pakistani gunman arrested for the Mumbai terror attacks has admitted that the young man whose picture was beamed by media across the world, is his son.
Amir Kasab, the father of Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Qasab, broke down as he made the admission to the influential 'Dawn' newspaper in the courtyard of his house in Faridkot, a village of about 2,500 people in Okara district of Punjab province.
Reports had said that Iman left home as a frustrated teenager about four years ago and went to Lahore in search of a job. After a brush with crime in that city, he reportedly joined the LeT.
Amir Kasab, a father of three sons and two daughters, said his son disappeared from home four years ago. "He had asked me for new clothes on Eid that I couldn't provide him. He got angry and left," he said.
Mother told
I am going away for jehad: Kasab told his mother
13 Dec 2008, 1843 hrs IST, PTI
ISLAMABAD: Ajmal Kasab, the lone gunman captured for the Mumbai terror attacks, told residents of his village in Pakistan's Punjab province during
his last visit there that he was going away for jehad.
Iman, also known as Ajmal Kasab, visited Faridkot village in Okara district of Punjab about five months ago and asked his mother to bless him before he embarked on jehad, local residents were quoted as saying in a report aired by Geo News channel on Saturday.
"He came to the village about five or six months ago. He told his mother he was going away for jehad. He asked her to bless him and to leave his fate in the hands of Allah," said an unnamed resident of Faridkot in what the channel described as secretly filmed footage.
The channel said most people of Faridkot and nearby Depalpur sub-district were reluctant to talk about Iman on record. However, in the secretly filmed footage, some residents were shown discussing his last visit to the village.
"A man from Faridkot said that on his last visit to the village, Ajmal gathered a group of boys near a school and asked them to catch him. He demonstrated feats of wrestling to them. Then we heard he had left home and joined a jehadi group," a man said.
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Beliefs
He was led to believe that he was doing something holy," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of Mumbai police
The Village
Pakistani villagers confirm it's the home of Mumbai killer
FARIDKOT, near Depalpur, Pakistan — The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during last week's terrorist attack on Mumbai comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for "jihad," according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.
Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the dark haired 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault -- in which over 170 people died -- left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to see small family home and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.
His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistan government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan.
A McClatchy reporter visited the village three times in four days and obtained official electoral records, which showed that Ajmal's parents, as named by the Indian authorities, indeed reside in the village.
At the time of the first visit on Wednesday, there was no sign of Pakistan plainclothes police. But village mayor, Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo, confirmed that a man named Ameer lives in Faridkot, with a son named Ajmal. But he said Ameer claimed his son was not the man captured by Indian authorities.
But everything in the village fit the details leaked from the Indian police interrogation of Ajmal. Indian police identified the father as Mohammad Ameer, who earns a meager living selling home-made snacks from a mobile cart, and his wife as Noor. At the tiny family house, located on a narrow street deep inside Faridkot, the McClatlchy reporter on a second visit Friday noted a mobile food cart lying in the courtyard.
Ameer, 44 and his wife, Noor, 47, were nowhere to be found. According to several villagers, who asked not to be named for their own security, "a bearded mullah" took them away during the night, likely, they thought, to be a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic extremist group accusing of being behind the Mumbai attack.
Wattoo led the visiting reporter to Ameer's house, where an elderly man named Sultan and a mid-aged woman named Miraj, who identified themselves as relatives, said the occupants had gone away "for a wedding."
But they gave inconsistent and changing stories, sometimes confirming that Ameer lives there, at other times denying it. The mayor, too, had attempted to delay the visit of a McClatchy reporter to the house Friday and changed his story at times. As a result of the delay, plainclothes Pakistani security officials got to the house before the reporter, and they appeared to have coached the occupants to throw visitors off the trail. :-o
A villager, who asked not to be named for his own safety, told McClatchy: "These people are telling you lies. We know that boy (caught in Mumbai) is from Faridkot. We knew from the first night (of the attack)."
Shown a picture of Ajmal, he confirmed it was the young man from the village.
"They brainwash our youth about jihad, there are people who do it in this village. They tell them they'll get a ticket to heaven. It is so wrong," the villager added.
Another resident said separately that he recognized the face in the photograph, though he later changed his mind when other villagers crowded around.
"He (Ameer) has lived here for a few years," said villager Mohammad Taj, an agriculturalist, who thought his age was around 50. "He has three sons and three daughters."
Noor Ahmed, 45, a local farmer said: "He (Ameer) had a stall he pushed around, sometimes here, sometimes elsewhere. He was a meek man, he hasn't particularly religious. He just made ends meet and didn't quarrel with anyone."
Residents said that Faridkot and the surrounding area, including a nearby village called Tara Singh, are a hotbed for recruitment for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The nazim or mayor of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem Haider, said: "There is a religious trend here. Some go for jihad but not too many."
Ajmal, who had little or no schooling, has been gone from Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year, said several locals. One said he would talk about freeing the Kashmir region from Indian rule when he returned, - the main aim of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
There are several Faridkots in Pakistan and one in India, and McClatchy's weeklong search for the home village of the captured suspect was complicated by incorrect details of the location published in the Indian news media.
The Faridkot from which Ajmal came is near the town of Depalpur, in the Okara district in southern Punjab
Many residents and local plainclothes police now appear to be trying to cover up Ajmal's connection with the village. By Saturday, the atmosphere turned hostile, and several reporters who went to Fardikot were roughed up, witnesses said by phone.
Faridkot mayor Wattoo at first denied the village was home to Ajmal Ameer Kasab. "There is a man here called Ameer, he pushed a snack cart around. He came to see me because he was very worried about reports on the news about an Ajmal from Faridkot being caught. But he told me that the boy they caught is not his Ajmal," Wattoo said.
Wattoo had also said there had been no local police investigation of whether Ajmal came from this Faridkot. At another village called Faridkot, near a town called Khanewal, also visited by McClatchy, there had been marked police and intelligence presence.
McClatchy obtained the official electoral records for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil (area) Depalpur, district Okara. The list of 478 registered voters shows a Mohammad Ameer, married to Noor Elahi, living in Faridkot. McClatchy has the national identity card numbers for both husband and wife.
Residents said that the family belonged to a clan of butchers, for which the local word is Kasab or Kasai. There is no tradition of surnames in rural Pakistan, and individuals take the names of their profession or tribe. Ajmal told Indian police his surname is Kasab, according to news reports.
Faridkot is dirt-poor with a remote feel, despite being close to a town. Most people have little education and live in poverty. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, graffiti in large lettering says, in Urdu, "Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad". MDI is the parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba. In nearby Depalpur, there is a banner on the side of the main street that asks people to devote goat skins to Jamaat ud Dawa, another MDI offshoot.
Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, had visited the nearby town of Depalpur to give speeches, where there were "hundreds" of supporters, locals said. There was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Depalpur but that was hurriedly closed in the last few days, they said. The Lashkar-e-Taiba newspaper is distributed in Depalpur and Faridkot. The area lies in the south of Punjab province, an economically backward area long known for producing jihadists.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent)
Life
Mr. Kasab has said he is from a poor family of devout Muslims in the small, dusty village of Faridkot in Punjab. His father worked selling snacks out of a cart. One of five siblings, Mr. Kasab has said he dropped out of school when he was in fourth grade so he could help support the family, working as a casual laborer in his town of 3,000 people
Farikdot
Now confirmed to have come from Faridkot.
(see Family)
Reported to have come from the Pakistani village of Faridkot. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan travelled there to speak to some of the villagers.
They also said that Qasab is a 21-year-old and a fluent English speaker.
That description seems to be at odds with the general population in the village he is said to hail from.
Confusingly, there are three villages by the name of Faridkot in this part of southern Punjab. A BBC Urdu service colleague visited two of them and found no one who knew of the man currently in Indian detention.
Contacts
According to the Indian police, the one gunman who survived the terrorist attacks, Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, 21, told his interrogators that he trained during a year and half in at least four camps in Pakistan and at one met with Mohammad Hafeez Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader
Partner
Ismail Khan
Hotel Taj room
Azam also revealed that he and his associate stayed in Room 630 in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel where they stored ammunition and had many visitors. They had booked the room for four days using fake Mauritian identities.[88] ATS sources indicate that blood and urine tests on Azam showed that the terrorist was heavily drugged while committing the acts of terror
At 20:30 another such incident played out in Colaba, when 10 Urdu-speaking men in inflatable speedboats came ashore. They reportedly told local Marathi-speaking fishermen to mind their business before they split up and headed two different ways; the fishermen's subsequent report to police received little response.
By Rajanish Kakade, The Associated Press
ADVERTISEMENT
MUMBAI, India - The militants waited in the shadows for the police van to pass, and when it slowed down in the narrow road, they sprayed it with gunfire.
The gunmen opened the doors and dumped five slumped officers' bodies into the streets, then piled into the van to continue their siege.
What they did not know was that two officers, including constable Arun Jadhav, were in the backseat, alive.
Jadhav was taken on a chilling 10-minute ride through the dark streets of Mumbai with some of the gunmen who had launched a siege that would last for 60 more hours and leave at least 174 people dead.
While one of the men drove the van, another pointed his rifle out the window and fired on a crowd milling outside a cinema. Later, he threw a grenade outside a state government building.
The young gunmen said little during the harrowing drive, but spoke Hindi with a strong Punjabi, north-Indian accent.
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Update :
Well after midnight, sources said two of the terrorists were shot and wounded at Girgaum in south Mumbai. The two were driving in a commandeered silver-coloured Skoda car. Earlier, these men had sprayed bullets from a police Bolero, outside the Metro Adlabs multiplex.
Hijacker killed
27 Nov 2008, 0900 hrs IST, TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES
Well after midnight, sources said two of the terrorists were shot and wounded at Girgaum in south Mumbai. The two were driving in a commandeered silver-coloured Skoda car. Earlier, these men had sprayed bullets from a police Bolero, outside the Metro Adlabs multiplex.
After abandoning the trawler, the men opened the inflatable dinghies they were carrying and sailed into Mumbai waters early on 26 November, a little more than 10 hours before the attack, investigators say.
An abandoned dinghy has been recovered in the sea off one of the many fishing colonies which dot the city's coast.
One of the top investigating officers told the BBC that the gunmen - nine were eventually killed and one arrested - split up into four groups and took the city's rickety black-and-yellow Fiat taxis from the fishing colony at Cuffe Parade to some of the locations they planned to attack.
a private fishing trawler with five crew members set sail from the Arabian sea off the coast of Porbandar in India's western Gujarat state on 13 November.
Sometime during the next 12 days, the trawler was taken over at sea by at least 10 young men, aged between 20 and 23 years, carrying backpacks and bags, according to sources in the Mumbai police, coastguard, and commandos.
suspicion has fallen on the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
What they do know is that the men tied up one of the crew in the trawler's engine room, and slit his throat. The abandoned trawler was found by Indian coastguard ships more than three nautical miles off Mumbai.
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Investigators told the BBC that the tracker showed "a return mapping for Karachi", leading to speculation that the men who attacked Mumbai had planned to return in the same trawler.
A ferry doing about 20 knots can cover the 506-nautical mile distance between Karachi and Mumbai in a little over 24 hours.
After abandoning the trawler, the men opened the inflatable dinghies they were carrying and sailed into Mumbai waters early on 26 November, a little more than 10 hours before the attack, investigators say.
Arrivibg
A witness who saw one of the teams land by sea adescribed the gunmen as "in their 20s, fair-skinned and tall, clad in jeans and jackets." He saw "eight young men stepping out of the raft, two at a time. They jumped into the waters, and picked up a haversack. They bent down again, and came up carrying two more haversacks, one in each hand."
Ship/Boat
Rakesh Maria, a joint commissioner of police, said: "Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves." However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift - suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large.
"Fifteen winter jackets were found, fifteen toothbrushes," a police source said.
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ndian Coast Guard, Navy, Mumbai maritime police, and customs units have scoured the waters off Mumbai in search of a "mother ship" that transported one or more smaller Gemini inflatable boats used by the attackers. A witness saw one of the craft land in Colaba in southern Mumbai and disgorge eight to 10 fighters.
Two ships that have been boarded are strongly suspected of being involved in the attacks: the Kuber, an Indian fishing boat, and the MV Alpha, a Vietnamese cargo ship. Both ships appear to have been directly involved. The Kuber was hijacked on Nov. 13, and its captain was found murdered. Four crewmen are reported to still be missing.
Indian security officials found what they believe is evidence linking the boat to the attack, as well as linking the attackers to Pakistan. "A GPS map of south Mumbai was found along with a satellite phone on the ship, Coast Guard officials confirmed," The Times of India reported. "There were reports that this phone was used to make calls to Karachi immediately before the shootings began in Mumbai."
Alpha
Kuber
This boat - Kuber - belongs to a fisherman from Porbander, Vinod Masani, who has been detained by Porbander police for interrogation. Indian Coast Guard spotted the boat with the body of captain Amarsing Naran, 30, in it. Four crew from Navsari and Junagadh districts are still missing. The Coast Guard is also looking for another missing boat which could have been used by terrorists.
It is suspected that this trawler was captured by the terrorists on high seas to be used as their transport vehicle to reach Gateway of India from Karachi port.
Sources in Porbander confirmed that the boat was traced by a Chetak helicopter of Mumbai Coast Guard some 20 nautical miles off Porbander.
This boat had set sail for Jakhau in Kutch near India-Pakistan border for fishing on November 14. Usually these boats return from fishing within 10 days but this one did not. The fisheries department was alerted about this on November 24. Kuber, with a 118 HP marine engine, had five crew members on board. It has a maximum speed of seven to eight nautical miles per hour. The boat is 45x15x11 feet in size and costs Rs 30 lakh. It can carry up to 20 tonnes.
Porbander district headquarters' Coast Guard is interrogating Vinod Masani and his brother Hiralal, who has the power of attorney for the boat. It is also suspected that the Pakistan Marine Agency helped the terrorists hijack the trawler. The missing crew include Balwant Prabhu, 45, Mukesh Rathod, 20, and Natu Nanu, 20, of Navsari and Ramesh Nagji, 37, of Junagadh.
Porbander SP Dipankar Trivedi said, "We are in the process of interrogating some people.'' The suspicion is that terrorists used the trawler to reach Mumbai's marine borders and then used two inflatable boats to reach Colaba.
Junagadh IG I M Desai said, "We have no confirmed information, but know about a fishing boat from Porbander that was missing.''
A massive manhunt was launched off the Mumbai coast on Wednesday by Coast Guard, Navy, marine wing of Mumbai Police and Customs after it became
evident that most, if not all, of the terrorists had arrived in the city through sea route.
Coast Guard's IG (Western Region) Rajendra Singh said three helicopters, two Dorniers, three large ships, two smaller vessels were involved in the search operation.
About eight terrorists came in from the sea off Badhwar Park in Colaba in geminicraft (inflatable boat) with a 20-HP engine around 9pm on Wednesday. A police officer of the Cuffe Parade police station said fishermen near the jetty got suspicious as they deserted the boat and headed towards the road. "When the fishermen stopped them, they said, ‘ humko tension hai ’ and pointed their weapons,'' said the police officer.
Another officer of the Cuffe Parade police station said, "The fishermen told us they were about 10-12 men. They split into two groups. While one group went towards CST and other towards Colaba. The engine and chasiss number of the Yamaha motor engine used for the boat has been scrapped, so as to make it difficult to trace the place of purchase.''
A retired IPS officer said the fishermen had also called the police, but they came late. An official said boats deserted by terrorists have been found in Colaba and off Chowpatty.
Meanwhile, a merchant vessel, MV Alpha, suspected to have ferried the terrorists, was intercepted on the high seas by Navy and Coast Guard warships on Thursday evening. Though some reports said the Vietnamese-registered MV Alpha had been given the "clean chit'', a senior Naval officer told TOI the ship was still being investigated after it was boarded by naval and Coast Guard personnel on the high seas off Gujarat's coast. "A probe will take some time. The vessel's crew and manifest are being checked,'' he said.
Earlier, launching a surveillance with warships, Dornier aircraft and copters, armed forces began a hunt for "a mother ship'' which could have carried the perpetrators of the terror strikes since three inflatable Zodiac gemini boats were found abandoned at the dock near the Gateway of India.
"MV Alpha, which came to Mumbai from Saudi Arabia on November 19 and left on Wednesday night, was found to be suspicious. It had sailed around 50 nautical miles away Mumbai by 7 am on Thursday,'' said an officer.
Why India?
India was targeted in the attack because of its economic and democratic development a prospective major global power in the world, and its crowded, diverse population. After the economic liberalization of the 90s, India’s economy developed enormously. In the 90s, Indian GDP increased yearly around 4-5% per year and after 2000 it increased to 8-9 % and it is estimated to increase to greater than 10% for the upcoming years. The Indian economy is expected to be one of the major economies along with the US and China. Moreover, India is ethnically diverse in nature, there are more than 200 languages spoken in the country. This development and rich culture attracts the resentment of Deccan Mujahedeen type groups and makes India a target to channel their hatred. Mumbai is the financial center of India and the attacks took place in hotels nearby touristic places. Thus, Mumbai being targeted is not a coincidence. These characteristics naturally make India more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. As a fast developing country, there is always the problem of income disparity in which development does not affect some of the regions and portions of the society. India is highly diverse ethnically, increasing the risk of ethnic tension as economic inequalities increases. Besides these factors, as a democracy, India is vulnerable to such attacks.
there is mounting pressure on the Afghan-Pakistan border against the Taliban and al-Qaida groups, and that predator drones are killing scores of terrorist leaders and operators. [Pakistani president] Asif Ali Zardari is engaging in military action against jihadi militants, which has chagrined a number of people in the [Pakistani intelligence service] ISI who are supporters of the Taliban. By ratcheting up the tension and bringing India into the battlefield, the attackers may be aiming to turn Pakistan away from the Taliban and focus on tension with India. This would then alleviate pressure on the militants.
Russian Opinion
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - The terrorist attack on Mumbai has become one of the largest in recent years.
It was perpetrated by militants from the Lashkar-i Taiba grouping (Army of the Righteous), operating in Jammu and Kashmir, long a disputable territory between India and Pakistan.
Who could have ordered and initiated such an act? What will be its effects? And who were its perpetrators? Let's begin with the last question.
Lashkar-i Taiba is a paramilitary wing of the Pakistani fundamentalist organization Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad. It was set up in 1980, but until 1993 operated mainly outside India. In the late 1990s, according to analysts, Lashkar-i Taiba was the most influential Sunni paramilitary organization. At the turn of the century, the group carried out a series of terrorist attacks in India; and following September 11, 2001 stories circulated that it was privy to that super-attack.
By turning to the aftermath, we can see that Pakistan, which is the "prime suspect," needs involvement least of all. The country is embroiled in a domestic conflict closely connected with the U.S. and allied operation in Afghanistan. In these conditions, to risk a very probable military conflict with India by backing such an attack would be suicidal for any Pakistani forces. So Pakistan's move in sending its head of intelligence to India to exchange information was absolutely logical.
Meanwhile, Indian media are launching a new anti-Pakistani campaign. Journalists are angry with the government's "soft attitude" and inability to show "due reaction."
But what is due reaction in the absence of reliable information? India, though stronger than its potential opponent, does not need a conflict with Pakistan. Relations between the two countries are currently largely overshadowed by the existence of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles in both. Bearing this in mind, the two sides try to avoid sudden moves against each other.
Neither Pakistan nor India can benefit from mutual terrorist attacks, or an escalation of the conflict because of possible tragic results. The sides will most likely join forces to try to find those who led the terrorists from outside and trained them, as well as the masterminds.
Who could have planned this attack and could have gained from it? Firstly, one cannot rule out the maverick nature of the terrorist organization itself, which may be controlled by and report to no one. However, it is not impossible that some outside force seeking destabilization in the region and a possible escalation of the conflict between India and Pakistan is the paymaster and planner of the attack.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
Instability
These attacks were aimed at the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel, a Jewish center, train station, the Leopold Cafe, a cinema, and a hospital. Those targets do not send a crystal clear message about the group’s intention.
Terrorists singled out American and British passport holders.
Historically LeT’s primary modus operandi has been to strike the Indian government over the Kashmiri issue. Amongst the dead were a broad selection of nationalities - Israelis, Americans, French, Australians, Germans, Japanese, Canadians, British Cypriots, and Italians; the hotels and restaurants hit catered to a foreign crowd; train stations and hospitals are important pieces of economic infrastructure.
It could be that LeT is trying to hit the Indian economy by scaring off international tourism and foreign direct investment.
“It seems unlikely that the terrorist attacks will have much of an impact on the Indian economy” said senior currency strategist Win Thin at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York in a research note. “However, it will certainly sour investor sentiment at a time when it was already poor. And the attacks come at a time when the economy is slowing and is the most vulnerable it has been in years.”
Preparations
The attackers also exhibited advanced knowledge of their targets’ layouts, which undoubtedly required advanced reconnaissance in preparation. One Indian commander told the media that the terrorists were, “very familiar with the layout of the [Taj] hotel.” The same commando team also revealed the contents of one of the killed gunman’s backpack that included “dried fruit, 400 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, four grenades, Indian and American money and seven credit cards. The pack also had a national identity card from the island of Mauritius.”[xxi] Indian authorities confirmed at the end of the sieges that they had killed nine gunmen and captured one. There is still much speculation that the number of attackers was in fact much higher but they were able to slip away in civilian clothes.
By GEORGE FRIEDMAN (Stratfor)
Stratfor analysis of the Mumbai Attack. It suggests:
"staging an attack the Indian government can't ignore, the Mumbai attackers have set in motion an existential crisis for Pakistan. The reality of Pakistan cannot be transformed, trapped as the country is between the United States and India. Almost every evolution from this point forward benefits Islamists. Strategically, the attack on Mumbai was a precise blow struck to achieve uncertain but favorable political outcomes for the Islamists."
Diversion
If Lashkar-e-Toiba is indeed responsible for the attacks - as Indian authorities claim and Pakistan denies - it will be the second time that the group has single-handedly put the two countries on a war footing. In 2002 each mobilised one million men for nearly a year after Lashkar attacked the Indian parliament.
The group that attacked Mumbai may well include some Pakistanis, but it is more likely to be an international terrorist force put together by al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taleban, who are besieged by the Pakistan army on one side and a rain of missiles being launched by US forces in Afghanistan against their hideouts on the other.
Al-Qaeda is looking for some relief and a diversion.
What better way to do so than by provoking the two old enemies - India and Pakistan - with a terrorist attack that diverts attention away from the tribal areas?
Such a move would force Pakistani troops back to the Indian border while simultaneously pre-occupying US and Nato countries in hectic diplomacy to prevent the region exploding.
A diversion such as this would preserve extremist sanctuaries along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and would provide militants with a much needed respite - especially considering that in the next few months President-elect Barak Obama is due to send an additional 20,000 US troops to Afghanistan, backed by more Nato troops.
If India and Pakistan can understand that they are both victims of a strategic diversion by al-Qaeda and if international mediation can help deepen that understanding, then there is perhaps a greater opportunity for the two countries to address the conflicts that have bedevilled their relationship for 60 years - Kashmir and other lesser issues.
It will certainly be difficult for the two countries to walk away from the brink. India has a weak government whose counter-terrorism policies have been a failure and which faces an election in the next six months. The Indian public and media are demanding revenge - not co-operation with Islamabad.
Pakistan also has a weak government that is still trying to set parameters of co-operation with an army which dominates foreign and strategic policy and controls the ISI, the most powerful political entity in the country.
Palestine parallel
Intelligence sources said Imran's call to India TV was made from the cellphone of slain Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, head of the Jewish center at the Chabad House. Imran criticized the visit by Israel's army chief, Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi, in September, apparently to give a counterterrorism briefing to Indian officers.
"You call their army staff to visit Kashmir. Who are they to come to J and K?" Imran told the anchor, referring to the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. "This is a matter between us and the Hindus, the Hindu government. Why does Israel come here?"
India and Israel have had a defense alliance since 1992, when diplomatic relations between the countries were established. India has become a major purchaser of Israeli weapons, which has angered some of India's Muslims. The visit by the Israeli general was kept secret for days, news reports said, for fear of riots by Muslims in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim area patrolled by more than 300,000 mostly Hindu Indian troops.
"Kashmir is a symbol, like Palestine, of a sense of injustice. It is a rallying cry for a much larger anger at India and the West," said Riedel, author of "The Search for al Qaeda."
Demonstration
Experts pointed out that the attackers targeted the more visible symbols of India's prosperity -- two of Mumbai's most prestigious hotels -- along with the city's only orthodox Jewish outreach center, a busy but relatively obscure building nestled in a crowded alleyway.
"The targets of the killers in Mumbai -- Americans, Brits, Israelis and Indians -- fit exactly into the profile of those that al Qaeda and its partners vilify and plot against," wrote Bruce Riedel, a former South Asia analyst for the CIA and the National Security Council, in a recent article posted on the Brookings Institution Web site.
The Mumbai attacks and the Kashmir question
Ahead of the national elections in India, and so soon after renewed unrest in Kashmir, eyes will be on the communal tensions in India for answers to the Mumbai attacks.
Lashkar-e-Taiba's camps typically give new recruits three weeks of basic weapons training, according to experts and past attendees. Volunteers begin their day with a call to morning prayers before rigorous exercises and religious instruction.
How
The largest training camp in Pakistan is run by Lashkar-i-Taiba, a wing of an Afghan mujahedin group known as Markaz Al Dawa Wal Irshad. It is set on a vast mountain clearing overlooking Muzaffarabad. (Training grounds for the other three militant groups are located in the North-West Frontier province.) Armed men guard the facility round-the-clock. There are only two structures, one an armory, the other a kitchen. Trainees live and sleep in the open, whether in the sweltering summer or the depth of winter. The field is dotted with installations used to teach the fervent young—some no older than 14—how to cross a river, climb a mountain or ambush a military convoy.
The day of a trainee begins at four in the morning. After offering prayers, the militants go for exercises. A breakfast of tea and bread is at eight, followed by a full day of rigorous drills, which are interrupted only for prayers and a simple lunch, usually rice and lentils. Coursework covers how to use sidearms, sniper rifles, grenades, rocket launchers and wireless radio sets, as well as the art of constructing bombs. The teachers are Lashkar veterans of action in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Sports, music and television are forbidden. Trainees are only allowed to read pre-screened newspaper articles. Training is divided into two stages. The first three-week session gives religious education and basic knowledge of how to handle firearms. Once a volunteer has passed that course, which costs the organization about $330 per trainee, he is sent to a designated city or town, often near his birthplace, to work at the group's offices and become more involved with the organization.
When a volunteer proves himself capable, motivated and loyal, he is enrolled in a special three-month commando boot camp, which costs the group $1,700 per student. (The money is raised from overseas groups and the Pakistani public, often via open demonstrations in Pakistani cities of militants working out, scaling walls and showing other martial tricks. Generous donors are invited to visit the not-so-secret camps to see how their money is spent.) Phase two is designed to push each volunteer to his physical limit and cull the weak from the strong. In the final weeks, recruits use live ammunition, construct actual explosives and perfect ambush techniques. The final exam lasts three days. A group of trainees, sometimes as large as 100 individuals, hikes and climbs through high-altitude, wooded terrain for three days without food or sleep. They are not allowed to slow their pace except for a few naps. At the end the hungry and thirsty survivors are given a goat, a knife and a matchbox. That's their reward, and they have to cook and eat it in warlike conditions.
Foreign fighters
Foreign recruits are sometimes trained at a special camp, according to Yong Ki Kwon, a Lashkar-e-Taiba trainee apprehended by police in northern Virginia in 2003. Mr. Kwon became a cooperating witness for the government in its investigation of the Virginia Jihad network and pleaded guilty to weapons and conspiracy charges. He described training at several Lashkar camps in Pakistan in weapons, camouflage, reconnaissance and night maneuvers, and ambush tactics.
he Virginia 'Paintball Jihad'
In 2004, federal Judge Leonie Brinkema found three Virginia men guilty of conspiring to aid the Indian terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba. Their convictions marked the end of a case that began with a 2002 indictment for violating the Neutrality Act, among other crimes. In the indictment, the grand jury alleged that a group of 11 co-conspirators in Alexandria, Va., plotted to join a Muslim insurgency against the government of India, and undertook overt acts in furtherance of that plan. These acts included engaging in firearms training, traveling to a Lashkar-i-Taiba camp in Pakistan, and playing paintball in the forests of Virginia. Specifically, the indictment held that "... the defendants and their conspirators practiced marksmanship with AK-47 style rifles ... at firing ranges operated by private parties" and "used paint-ball weapons and equipment to practice small-unit military tactics and simulate actual combat in preparation for violent jihad."
At the time, some attacked the government's case as overly broad. In a 2004 interview with this author, Washington, D.C.,-area attorney Elaine Cassel maintained that the Virginia Neutrality Act prosecutions simply provided the federal government with a pretext for singling out those who supported Muslim causes.
"A couple of the defendants had traveled to Pakistan and participated in a training camp operated by Lashkar-i-Taiba ... so it is not disputed that the two of them came back and talked about the cause," Cassel said. "Now what is in dispute is that when they played paintball, they were doing those activities as preparation to fight with a terrorist organization against a friend of the United States
Cost
pay
The sole Mumbai gunman to be taken alive has said he was paid 150,000 Pakistani rupees – about £1,300 or $1,900 – for his part in the attacks that killed nearly 200 people, according to police.
Trained for 18 months in several camps.
Last 3 months each were trained individually for their own targets & tasks.
Then all joined as a team in Karachi to leave for Mumbai.
The Kashmir struggle left Pakistani groups well-schooled for carrying out attacks like those in Mumbai, Rashid said.
"They were well-versed in urban surveillance and urban terrorism -- these are not Pashtun tribesmen and mullahs," he said. "These were well-trained, sophisticated guys with 15 years of battle experience."
The group that attacked Mumbai may well include some Pakistanis, but it is more likely to be an international terrorist force put together by al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taleban, who are besieged by the Pakistan army on one side and a rain of missiles being launched by US forces in Afghanistan against their hideouts on the other.
Al-Qaeda is looking for some relief and a diversion
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET)
According to police reports, the one terrorist who was captured alive disclosed that the attackers belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist group
Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose name means "army of the pure," was founded with the help of Pakistani intelligence officers more than 20 years ago as a proxy force to challenge Indian control of Muslim-dominated Kashmir.
Today it is technically banned in Pakistan but operates openly through affiliates. Its links to Al Qaeda remain murky, as does the extent of its current ties to Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
At its start in 1989, Osama bin Laden was widely reported to have been a financial supporter. Since 2002, Lashkar trainers have worked closely with Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to Seth Jones, an expert on militant groups at the RAND Corporation who has spent time in Afghanistan.
Their presence has increased in Afghanistan in the last year, Mr. Jones said. “They have had small numbers of fighters embed with local Afghan units on the ground such as the Taliban to gain combat experience and improve their tactics, techniques and procedures,” he said.
Experts & Military
Indian investigators have said that the captured suspect told them that at least one former Pakistani military officer took part in training the gunmen -- a credible scenario, in the view of some observers.
"Some handlers of these organizations, intelligence officials, didn't wear a uniform," said Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani law enforcement official who is a research fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center. "Even if they've been thrown out of their agency, their clients might not know; they meet in a small mountain town, and their clients don't really know whether they are current or former ISI."
Among the trainers were several who appeared in army and navy uniforms with names and rank badges, Mr. Roy said. The Pakistani government denies any of its military was involved in training the attackers.
The former Lashkar member also said training was provided by Pakistani military officers in uniform when he attended camp in Muzaffarabad. "They were experts," he said. "They taught us about explosives, about urban combat, how to go into buildings, clear rooms of people and hold off soldiers for as long as we could."
Organisers
Even before the attackers landed on Mumbai's shores, Lakhvi, the Lashkar commander, who is normally based in Kashmir, helped organize the plot from Karachi for the last three months, said a Pakistani official in contact with Lashkar.
The gunmen also kept in contact with their handlers
The phone contained the telephone numbers of Muzammil, Lakhvi and a number of other Lashkar operatives, according to a report on the Mumbai siege released Thursday by M. J. Gohel and Sajjan M. Gohel, two security analysts who direct the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London
Indian and American intelligence officials have already identified a Lashkar operative, who goes by the name Yusuf Muzammil, as a mastermind of the attacks. On Thursday, Indian investigators named one of the most well-known senior figures in Lashkar, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
While Muzammil appears to have served as a control officer in Lahore, Pakistan, Lakhvi, his boss and the operational commander of Lashkar, worked from Karachi, a southern Pakistani port city, said investigators in Mumbai.
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Indian police have now named a senior LET planner in Pakistan as the orchestrator of the Mumbai attacks and said several leaders of the militant group were in touch by satellite links with the 10 terrorists in the two days before they landed in India.
Police said the names and phone numbers of five members of the Pakistani group's leadership were contained in a satellite phone left behind by the terrorists on a fishing boat they hijacked and then abandoned before reaching Mumbai. Records from the phone show calls had been made to five LET leaders.
Among them was Yusuf Muzammil, head of LET's terrorism operations against India. Indian police said the only terrorist captured alive, Ajmal Amir Kamal, identified Muzammil as the planner of the attacks.
Police sources said two of Muzammil's deputies helped orchestrate the strikes, according to Kamal's testimony.
Jeremy Hammonds Overview
Ahmed & Rahman
At least two other Indians were also connected to the attacks, Mukhtar Ahmed and Tausef Rahman. They were arrested for their role in obtaining SIM cards used in the cell phones of the terrorists. Ahmed, according to Indian officials, had in fact been recruited by a special counter-insurgency police task force as an undercover operative. His exact role is still being investigated.
Dawood Ibrahim
Ibrahim, an Indian who is intimately familiar with the city. It was in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) that Ibrahim rose through the ranks of the underworld to become a major organized crime boss.
Dawood Ibrahim went from underworld kingpin to terrorist in 1993, when he was connected to a series of bombings in Bombay that resulted in 250 deaths. He is wanted by Interpol and was designated by the US as a global terrorist in 2003.
Jeremy R. Hammond
(December 11, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) The role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month of an underworld kingpin that heads an organization known as D-Company, has known ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and who is alleged to have ties with the CIA is apparently being whitewashed, suggesting that his capture and handover to India might prove inconvenient for either the ISI or the CIA, or both.
It was Dawood Ibrahim who was initially characterized by press reports as being the mastermind behind the attacks. Now, that title of “mastermind” is being given to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi by numerous media accounts reporting that Pakistan security forces have raided a training camp of the group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which evidence has indicated was behind the attacks. Lakhvi was reportedly captured in the raid and is now in custody.
Sabauddin
Tue Dec 9, 2008 11:39am EST
The new suspect was arrested in February along with Indian-born Fahim Ansari, who was caught carrying maps that highlighted a number of the city landmarks that were hit in the assault, lead Mumbai police investigator Rakesh Maria said.
The man, whom police identified only as Sabauddin, has languished in a jail in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with Ansari since they were arrested for an attack on a reserve police camp.
"We have got a transfer warrant for Fahim and will be getting a warrant for Sabauddin tomorrow or Thursday so we can bring them here for questioning," Rakesh Maria told reporters.
Abu Hamza
Police say Mr. Kasab also has identified a Lashkar leader named Abu Hamza, which is most likely a pseudonym. Mr. Hamza was in contact with an Indian Lashkar operative who had scoped out two of the targets hit in Mumbai last week, according to police.
Abdul Rehman Makki
One is Abdul Rehman Makki, the group's director of foreign affairs and Lashkar's second-in command, according to a 2005 posting on the group's Web site. He regularly speaks at conferences sponsored by Jamaad-ud-Daawa, the charitable organization that experts say is Lashkar's parent.
Faheem Ahmed Ansari
Indian named Faheem Ahmed Ansari
Role
Fahim Arshad Ansari (35), born and bought up in Mumbai, was arrested by the UP Special Task Force along with seven other Lashkar men.
During interrogation, they revealed that they planned to carry out strikes in Mumbai.
Ansari, who received training at LeT camps in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, had started ground work in the run up to a terror strike in Mumbai.
He had rented a house in Mumbai's red light district and was searching for one more flat.
"He had also surveyed possible targets and I think he was entrusted with the logistical support being a local. Once the two hideouts were in place, more terrorists would have moved into them and following which a delivery of the explosives would have taken place," said the officer.
Involvement
Meanwhile, Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, said authorities were investigating the alleged role in the plot of Faheem Ansari, 35, who is in Indian custody. Maria said Ansari allegedly helped the attackers acquire "such intricate knowledge of the sites."
Ansari was arrested earlier this year in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for his alleged involvement in a New Year's Eve grenade attack on a police camp there.
In a confession to Uttar Pradesh police, Ansari admitted scouting several Mumbai locations for a man calling himself Kahafa, who was later found to be an operative for Lashkar, officials say.
"Kahafa also asked me specific questions about the Mumbai airport," Ansari was quoted as saying. "He asked me to find out about the height of the airport wall, the location of the nearest building that is at striking distance from the runway. I took photographs and shot videos of these places."
But he said that "the delivery of weapons could not materialize and the plan was postponed."
Had Maps
Faheem Ansari, an Indian citizen, was arrested in February in north India, carrying hand-drawn sketches of hotels, the train terminal and other sites that were later attacked in Mumbai, said Amitabh Yash, director of the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police.
Mr Ansari also had up-to-date blueprints of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel that were better than those available to the security services, Mr Yash said.
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed was a founding member of MDI and later became the leader of the LeT. He announced his resignation from this position in December 2001 after the Pakistani Government froze LeT assets in Pakistan. He appointed Maulana Wahid Kashmiri as the new LeT commander. However, there is considerable scepticism as to whether the resignation actually took effect and Saeed is still assessed to be the Amir of the LeT.
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In an interview this week, Muhammad Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for Jamaat-u-Dawa, a parent organization of Lashkar, denied that Lashkar or its leader, Mohammed Hafiz Saeed, had any connection to the attack. The surviving gunman in Mumbai claimed to have met Saeed at a training camp in Pakistan.
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Haiz Saeed became the protégé of Abdullah Azzam, who, along with Osama bin Laden, founded MAK to recruit and train foreign fighters to join the mujahedeen. The CIA worked closely with the ISI to finance, arm, and train the mujahedeen.
Al Qaeda Link
Haiz Saeed became the protégé of Abdullah Azzam, who, along with Osama bin Laden, founded MAK to recruit and train foreign fighters to join the mujahedeen. The CIA worked closely with the ISI to finance, arm, and train the mujahedeen.
See info on Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK)
The 63-year-old Mr. Saeed lives in a large compound that includes a cream-colored mosque that faces on to a bustling commercial street. A sign outside says Center of Qadsisiyah, a triumphant reference to the place where the Arabs defeated the Persians in the seventh century.
A spokesman for Mr. Saeed, Muhammad Yahya Mujahid, denied in an interview on Wednesday that Mr. Saeed was involved in the Mumbai attacks, and described the Indian demand that he be turned over along with 19 others as “propaganda.”
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi
Worked for Muzammil
Lakhvi, his boss and the operational commander of Lashkar, worked from Karachi,
Lakhvi, the Lashkar commander, who is normally based in Kashmir, helped organize the plot from Karachi for the last three months, said a Pakistani official in contact with Lashkar.
Another Lashkar official Indian police say was involved is Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a Lashkar founder. Mr. Lakhvi, who operates under several aliases, has served as the group's supreme operational commander, directing Lashkar's operations in Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia and Iraq. He is from the Okara district in Pakistan's central province of Punjab, the same district where Mr. Kasab has said his home village is located.
Kasab reportedly told his interrogators that he and his fellow terrorists were trained under Lakhvi, also known as “Chacha”, at a camp in Pakistan. Indian officials also traced calls from a satellite phone used by the terrorists to Lakhvi.
Yusuf Muzammil
7 Dec 2008, 0026 hrs IST, TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES
US investigators have identified Yusuf Muzammil, a Lashkar-e-Taiba leader, as the mastermind behind the attacks. US secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice has already asked Pakistan to turn in Muzammil and other suspects, the report said.
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Yusuf Muzammil, also known as Abu Yusuf, Abu Hurrera, and “Yahah”
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Mr Lakhvi, one of LeT’s operations chiefs, was named as a ringleader in the Mumbai plot by the lone surviving gunman captured in India, according to Indian officials.
He and Yusuf Muzammil, the head of Lashkar’s anti-India operations, gave orders by telephone to the 10 militants who killed at least 171 people in the attack on Mumbai, Indian officials said.
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he phone had also been used to call Yusuf Muzammil, also known as Abu Yusuf, Abu Hurrera, and “Yahah”. And it has been Muzammil, not Lakhvi, who has previously been described as the military commander of LeT. It was an intercepted call to Muzammil on November 18 that put the Indian Navy and Coast Guard on high alert to be on the lookout for any foreign vessels from Pakistan entering Indian waters.
Afganistan
Kashmir
India
Region
Bases
Muzaffarabad
he was recruited into Lashkar.
One of the camps he attended was in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir
Shawai
Pakistani security forces have raided a camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), sources said, in a strike against the militant group blamed by India for last month's deadly attacks on Mumbai.
Local man Nisar Ali said the operation began on Sunday afternoon (local time) in Shawai on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani side of disputed Kashmir region.
City/Town
Confusingly, there are three villages by the name of Faridkot in this part of southern Punjab. A BBC Urdu service colleague visited two of them and found no one who knew of the man currently in Indian detention.
I visited a third Faridkot, about 50km (31 miles) from Multan on the road to Khanewal.
It is an archetypal Punjabi village - a dusty enclave of mud and stone buildings of about 4,000 people.
Mohammad Ilyas Khan
We are all hardworking, honest people here
Farmer Mohammad Ilyas Khan
Almost all of the villagers are semi-literate farmers and labourers. They are surrounded by green fields and brimming canals.
Nearby Multan - known as city of the saints - is one of the oldest cities in the world and the hometown of Pakistan's current prime minister and foreign minister.
Located close to the Indian border, the city also houses the headquarters of the Wifaq-ul-Madaris (association of religious schools), which operates establishments throughout Pakistan.
Khanewal is another, smaller city in southern Punjab, an area which since the partition of India has long been known for its strong religious sentiments and staunchly anti-Indian views.
It is also one of Pakistan's most under-developed and poverty stricken areas.
Local Knowledge
Not possible foir a large training camp to be invisible to local people - they need to by supplies, food etc.
So - WHO knows?
Offical
Locals
In March 2008, intelligence agencies had warned the Maharashtra government that the Gateway of India and Oberoi Trident hotel were potential targets. Sources said that it was revealed by Fahim Ansari who was arrested in Lucknow.
Later in August, intelligence agencies warned the crime branch that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was training 500 to 600 terrorists for attacks through sea.
Agencies said that the terrorists would be disguised as fishermen. They also mentioned that two West Asians recced Goa and Mumbai for two whole months.
Then in September, the Maharashtra state police was again warned of potential attacks on the Taj and Oberoi Trident hotels. Agencies also mentioned that terrorists were doing recces of the targets. Following that, a month later, intelligence agencies warned of a sea-borne attack and said an Indian, unmarked vessel might be used.
Finally, on November 18, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) again issued a warning to the Coast Guard, Navy and Maharashtra Police that the Taj and Oberoi were potential targets.
Naval intercepts revealed "chatter" on the sea and RAW said that the attack was being planned by the Lashkar-e-Toiba's naval wing.
Warnings Ignored…
When ever a big attack like this is about to happen, the IB (Intelligence Bureau) will have some information about the attack, which is shared with the local authorities, so that they can improve the security measures. Even in this case Mumbai 26/11 Attacks, IB has passed some information to the authorities, here is the jist.
Mar 18 2007 : IB Conveys warning to the state indicating that the monument and its surroundings were considered as high-value target by the jehandis. New security measures were jolted by IB and forwarded to the concern departments.
Sep 18 2008 : Satellite phone conversation incercepted by IB reveals Lashkar is planning to attack a 5-star hotel in Mumbai from sea, this time the warnings were not specific to a particular site.
Sep 20 2008 : Marriot hotel in Pakistan is attacked by suicide bomber, during this time IB alerted the local department on similar kind of attack or attack specific to 5-Star hotels can happen in Metro cities, where by Mumbai will be their prime target.
Sep 24 2008 : IB intercepted another call, where the Laskher is going to attack Taj at Gateway or Marriot in Juhu or Taj’s Lands End at Bandra, as all these hotels are near the sea. This message is specifically passed to the Mumbai Commissioner, he adviced these hotels to step up the security.
12 Oct 08 : India receives warnings from US , the details of the warnings revealed a potential attack from the sea againsts hotels and business centers in Mumbai.
19 Nov 08 : This time around the warning comes more specific information and it also suggests a ship controlled by Lashkar had set to sail from Karachi with dangerous cargo destined for Indian shores (specifically Mumbai)
The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in Mumbai had been warned of a possible terrorist attack and had temporarily beefed up security,
but nothing could have stopped the gunmen, Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group that owns the hotel, said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.
The iconic Taj was one of two luxury hotels taken over by terrorists on Wednesday night. When the 59-hour siege on Mumbai ended on Saturday, at least 183 people were killed at 10 locations and another 239 were wounded.
"It's ironic that we did have such a warning and we did have some (security) measures," Tata said in an interview to Fareed Zakaria to be broadcast on a news channel on Sunday.
While Tata wouldn't elaborate on the nature of the warning, he said security measures — such as making guests walk through a metal detector and not allowing cars to park in the hotel's portico — were eased shortly before Wednesday night's mayhem.
But even if the security detail was in place, it would not have prevented the terrorists from entering the hotel, Tata admitted.
"They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our (security) arrangements are in the front," he said. "They planned everything. I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen."
Hotel Warned
Indian intelligence had obtained its own warnings of an attack. One indication was a request from a LeT operative to obtain international SIM cards for an upcoming operation. There was also information that a LeT team was training at a camp near Karachi, and that part of their training was to prepare for launching attacks from the sea. The team was trained under Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, also known as “Chacha”. Also among the information received was that the Taj Mahal hotel was pinpointed as a major target.
As a result, security at the hotel was increased, but was lessened again just a week prior to the attacks because of complaints from the hotel’s clients. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, which owns the hotel, acknowledged that warnings of a possible attack had been received.
The Tata Group is also invested in the energy sector, and stands to gain from the recent deal between the U.S. and India, which would provide India with nuclear resources outside of the framework of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards system. Pakistan has voiced its opposition to the U.S. deal with its nuclear-armed neighbor.
13:13 GMT, Tuesday, 2 December 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7760460.stm
Security experts have criticised the response to the attacks, which left nearly 200 people dead, as "amateurish, sluggish and feeble".
Indian intelligence agencies are leaking information that they gave about half a dozen warnings to the government in Maharashtra state - of which Mumbai is the capital.
The reports say Maharashtra was warned that strikes were being planned on city landmarks, including, possibly, the Taj Mahal hotel at the historic Gateway of India.
Authorities in Mumbai flatly deny that they received any tip-offs. "It is unimaginable that we would have got this sensitive information and not react," says state Interior Secretary Chitkala Zutshi.
--------------------------------
Indian and European intelligence officials tell CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar the information gathered was specific enough to cite threats to Mumbai's main hotels, and the possibility that Islamic militants might use boats to penetrate the city's weak coastal defenses.
Indian Govt admits to intelligence failure
by Sanjay Jha | December 5, 2008 at 01:09 am
Mumbai attacks: Indian Govt admits to intelligence failure
by Sanjay Jha
P Chidambaram, India's newly appointed home secretary, has admitted security and intelligence lapses in the wake of ghastly terror attack on India's commercial and entertainment capital Mumbai. This is the first public admission by such a high officials after the Mumbai terror attack. After visiting terror struck railway station Mumbai, He appealed to general public not to be harsh on security agencies.
His predecessor Shivraj Patil forced to resign after continously failing to check the spate of terrorist attacks.
Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times
Email Author
New Delhi, December 01, 2008
First Published: 22:43 IST(1/12/2008)
Last Updated: 12:33 IST(2/12/2008)
As the investigation into the intelligence failures that preceded the Mumbai attacks proceeds, there is evidence that even quite specific information that was gathered was either not properly analysed or not acted on.
The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency, had provided several intercepts from signals intelligence over the last three months. These suggested that a terror strike on a Mumbai hotel was imminent. But they were largely ignored.
The revelations about the phone intercepts (which R&AW has documented) are certain to lead to questions about the government’s inept response to the attack...On September 18, R&AW computers intercepted a satellite phone conversation between a known Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) asset and an unknown person. The LeT asset said that an operation to target a hotel at the Gateway of India in Mumbai was being planned and that the sea route would be used.
On September 24, R&AW’s computer recorded another satellite phone conversation. This time, the LeT asset identified the hotels that were being considered for the attack by name. They were the Taj, the Marriott, the Land’s End and the Sea Rock. A possible attack on the Juhu airfield (used by a flying club) was also discussed.
All these hotels have one thing in common: they are easily accessible from the sea. The Taj is on the Apollo Bunder waterfront, the Marriott is on Juhu sea face and the Land’s End and the Sea Rock are both on the sea-facing tip of Bandra. This should have been enough to let police know that: 1) Hotels were the target. 2) The attackers would use the sea route.
On November 19, R&AW listeners picked up another unexplained satellite phone conversation. A voice said, “We will reach Bombay between nine and eleven.” R&AW trackers identified the exact coordinates of the call and discovered that it came from the sea near Mumbai, 40 km west of Jhol.
This was clear evidence — at the very least — of an attempt being made to enter Mumbai illegally by people armed with advanced satellite phones.
R&AW passed on the information contained in each intercept on the very day it was received to the centralised intelligence group set up by the National Security Adviser. Its officers say that R&AW’s job ended there — it does not have the authority to operate on Indian soil.
Despite repeated attempts by HT, National Security Adviser MK Narayanan did not take calls.
On November 26, the day of the attack, but several hours before it had begun, R&AW trackers recorded a conversation between the LeT’s Muzammil, who has been under surveillance for some time, and a Bangladesh number.
Muzammil said that five SIM cards would be required for the operation.
R&AW analysts are still making sense of the conversation. Was Muzammil referring to another operation? Why would he ask somebody in Bangladesh for SIM cards to be used in Mumbai on the day of the operation?
One theory is that the LeT was unwilling to phone its Mumbai assets directly for fear that they would be traced. The Bangladesh number was either a relay station from which the call was forwarded to Mumbai or perhaps the LeT communicated with its Mumbai cells through Bangladesh based cut-outs or intermediaries.
The revelations about the phone intercepts (which R&AW has documented) are certain to lead to questions about the government’s inept response to the attack, especially as the intercepts make it clear that (a) Mumbai hotels were being targeted (b) that the sea route was being used and (c) that the attacks were imminent.
The Mumbai police say they had no specific inputs from intelligence agencies. But these intercepts were clear, detailed and specific. So, are the police lying? Was this information not passed on? Or was it just incorrectly processed?
Feb 2008
An alarming piece of information that has come to light after the Mumbai attacks is that the Uttar Pradesh police had intelligence since February 2008 that the LeT will carry out a fidayeen attack on Mumbai. This intelligence was based on inputs provided by Fahim Ahmed Ansari and seven others, two Pakistani nationals amongst them, that they were preparing to undertake a terror strike on Mumbai. Ansari in fact had carried out reconnaissance of the Oberoi Trident while he was in Mumbai from November 28 to December 10, 2007. This information was passed on to the Maharashtra police and its Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief, the late Hemant Karkare, who warned hotels like the Taj and the Oberoi Trident to invest in security equipment and personnel. But Karkare’s warnings went unheeded.
security experts confirm that information extracted from a group of Indian and Pakistani men arrested in northern India earlier this year revealed that some men belonging to Pakistan-based groups had done a reconnaissance of major landmarks in Mumbai. The agencies had also been picking up militant chatter on attacks in the city.
In March 2007, two Pakistani militants of LeT confessed that they had infiltrated into the Indian Territory in a group of eight through sea route from Karachi to Mumbai. This was the first reported infiltration of Pakistani militants through sea-route. Two Indians were also arrested for providing assistance to the Let militants.
The same month, on March 8, 2007, A.K. Antony, the Indian minister of Defense publicly admitted before the Parliament that several intelligence reports warned that “terrorists of various organizations have received training for their infiltration through sea routes” and that such infiltrations were “likely”.
Following attack - emails were sent to newspaperetc.
Note :
It could be they used a proxy server and it was located in Russia. It’s easy enough to find out if it were sent via a proxy server.
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Email Claiming Responsibility for Mumbai Terrorist Attack Traced to Russia
A report from the India Times says the email claiming responsibility for the Mumbai terrorist attacks has been traced to Russia. An unknown outfit, Deccan Mujahideen, has sent an email to news organizations claiming that it carried out the Mumbai attacks. The report says the IP address that the email was sent from was located in Russia. See the video report here. And this additional report also linking the email to Russia
Note : The Deecan group may be simply a £red herring" to disguise the group.
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Posted on November 27, 2008 by nsemarket
An e-mail sent by an unknown group, Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan, after the Mumbai terror attack has warned of more such attacks.
“We today warn the Indian government to stop the repeated injustice on Muslims and it should return the states snatched from Muslims. But we know that Indian government would not take this warning seriously,” said the group in a two page e-mail sent to television channels.
“That is why we have decided that warning will not just remain a warning, we would ensure that it is proved true, an example of which you have seen in Mumbai,” said the e-mail.
“Now we will keep on reacting till the time we don’t take revenge of every atrocity on us, every insult to us,” it said.
An e-mail now posted on a password protected al-Qaeda related web site and sent to Indian media two months ago read in part, “Let the Indian Mujahideen warn all the people of Mumbai that whatever deadly attacks Mumbaikars will face in future, their responsibility would lie with the Mumbai ATS (the Anti-Terrorist Squad) and their guardians.”
The diatribe continued, “The entire Mumbai ... ATS has failed to take heed from our previous warnings, and is deliberately committed to mess with us. You should know that your acts are not at all left unnoticed; rather we are closely keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the proper time to execute your bloodshed.”
Predicting even more violence ahead, the writer of the e-mail said, “Remember it is not at all difficult for us to attack you in states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala etc. And by the Grace of Allah there is no shortage of explosives or lack of
manpower, and we are extremely capable to shed your blood anywhere anytime.”
Warning in Deecan Herald newspaper that Mumbai was to be attacked in some way.
Said that USA warned India twice on a seabourn attack. Alert was raised then dropped.
December 03, 2008 17:49 IST
Reinforcing India's assertion that the Mumbai terror attacks [Images] had Pakistani links, the United States intelligence chief has pointed his finger at the banned militant outfit Lashkar-e Toiba over the deadly strikes.
US National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell's remarks, in an address to the Harvard University on Tuesday night, came hours after India announced that it had demanded the handing over of LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad
McConnell did not identify the group by name but New Delhi [Images] has pinned the 2006 attacks on Mumbai commuter trains to the LeT, a Pakistan-based terrorist group. The 2001 attack on Indian Parliament, which pushed India and Pakistan on the brink of war, was also blamed on the LeT apart from Jaish-e Muhammad, another Pakistan-based militant outfit.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Pure, was formed to fight against India's rule over disputed territories in Kashmir. In recent years, American and Indian officials have blamed it for a campaign of violence against high-profile targets throughout India, including the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament building in New Delhi and an August 2007 strike at an amusement park in Hyderabad.
At left, one of the group's posters suggests that the map of the subcontinent be changed to include ''more Pakistans.''
After the terror attacks on Mumbai that began on Nov. 26, 2008, American intelligence officials focused on possible connections to Lashkar-e-Taiba and another Kashmiri insurgent group, Jaish-e-Muhammad. Lashkar-e-Taiba denied involvement.
A State Department report released earlier this year called Lashkar-e-Taiba “one of the largest and most proficient of the Kashmiri-focused militant groups.” The report said that the group draws funding in part from Pakistani expatriate communities in the Middle East, despite the freezing of its assets by the United States and Pakistani government in 2002, after the attack on the Indian Parliament. The report said that the actual size of the group is unknown, but estimated its strength at “several thousand” members.
Both Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad have received material and logistical support from Pakistan, Indian and Pakistani analysts say. They operated there openly until being banned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, under heavy pressure from the United States.
Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, has fought two wars with predominantly Hindu but secular India over Kashmir, India's only majority Muslim state. The two countries went to the brink of war after the 2001 Parliament attack. Tensions had moderated more recently, but after the Mumbai attacks, the history of ties between Pakistan's military intelligence agencies and the Kashmiri groups led quickly to Indian accusations of Pakistani complicity.
U-turn by Lashkar-e-Taiba
Praveen Swami
Jamaat-ud-Dawa has been seeking to distance itself from its armed wing
Lashkar trying to avoid global pressure
NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Taiba spokesperson Abdullah Ghaznavi’s offer to end jihad is a remarkable departure from the traditional Lashkar position, in which fighting a global jihad was cast as its central concern.
Qari Abdul Wahid, who is now claimed to head the Lashkar’s operations in Jammu and Kashmir, wrote in the December, 1999, issue of Voice of Islam magazine that the organisation would “uphold the flag of freedom and Islam through jihad not only in Kashmir but in the whole world.”
In the February 2000 issue of the magazine, the then-head of the Lashkar’s publicity, Nazir Ahmad, declared that its jihad would continue until “Islam will be dominant all over the world.” And, in an online pamphlet circulated around 1999, “Jihad in the Present Times,” the Lashkar insisted that jihad must continue “until Islam, as a way of life, dominates the whole world and until Allah”s law is enforced everywhere in the world.”
Lashkar leaders have reiterated this position in several recent speeches. Its overall chief, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, said in an interview in early December 2008: “God has ordained every Muslim to fight until His rule is established. We have no option but to follow God’s order.”
A tactical ruse?
Given these recent speeches, it is unclear if Ghaznavi spoke with the authorisation of the organisation’s top leadership.
However, there have been signs that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Lashkar’s parent political-religious organisation, has been seeking to distance itself from its armed wing in an effort to evade sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council last month.
In a January 9 interview, Jamaat-ud-Dawa spokesperson Abdullah Muntazir said the two Lashkar commanders believed to have organised November attacks in Mumbai, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, were unconnected with his organisation.
Lakhvi’s relationship with Saeed is believed to have been strained ever since 2004, after the 1950-born Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief married the wife of a Lashkar terrorist killed in Kashmir—a woman three decades his junior. Both men were also reported to have had bitter disputes over the use of funds. However, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate stepped in to heal their fissures.
Now, intelligence sources said, the Lashkar appears to be seeking to avoid international pressure by creating a firewall between its military and charitable operations — a ruse used to effect in 2002, after President Pervez Musharraf’s military government proscribed the Lashkar.
On that occasion, the Markaz Dawa wal’Irshad, Lashkar’s parent organisation, renamed itself the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and cast itself as a charitable organisation. The Lashkar notionally shifted its headquarters to Muzaffarabad, PoK, where the ban did not apply.
JAM to rename
Jamaat may rename itself
Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:33:06 GMT
Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa is preparing to reincarnate under a new name after the UN Security Council announces a ban after Mumbai attacks.
Jamaat, a front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba, may rename itself as "Tehreek-e-Hurmat-Rasool" (Movement for defending the honor of God), so as to avoid restrictions which Pakistan could be forced to impose on it because of Security Council sanctions.
The move came as senior Jamaat members recently organized a rally in Pakistan under the banner of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool (THR), The Times of India reported Friday without naming its sources.
In fact, Jamaat itself is a reincarnation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) after the latter was banned by the United States seven years ago. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed quit the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001 to become head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
LeT was founded by Saeed in 1990 in Afghanistan's Kunar province. The group, which does not believe in democracy, has publicly announced several times that 'jihad' (holy war) is the "only way Pakistan can move towards dignity and prosperity".
India maintains Jamaat continues with its activities under the disguise of education and "so-called charities". India blames Islamabad for turning a blind eye towards the group.
New Delhi is under the impression that Pakistan is using 'jihadis' as "one of the arms of diplomacy" and due to this reason, it is not taking any action except "tokenism" against the Jamaat despite the ban imposed by Security Council on December 11 in the wake of November 26 Mumbai attacks.
Saeed, who is supposedly under house arrest, is said to be moving about freely while avoiding the media, the newspaper said.
Jamaat response
'Jamaat has no alliance with LeT'
6 Jan 2009, 1858 hrs IST, PTI
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, banned by the UN Security Council as a terrorist organisation, on Tuesday claimed that it had no "alliance" with the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
"We are engaged in educational and welfare activities inside Pakistan while the LeT is fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir," Jamaat spokesman Abdullah Muntazir said.
Jamaat has "no alliance with LeT," he claimed in an interview to a private Indian channel, when asked about Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's remarks that the group's members are linked to LeT.
"It is totally misconception," Muntazir said of Gilani's comments. He alleged that the Indian media was engaged in "false propaganda" against Jamaat and termed the recent interview of the outfit's chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed to a magazine as "fake".
"On the basis of these media reports the US went to the UN Security Council and that (banning of Jamaat) was a biased move by the Security Council," he said
On the whereabouts of Saeed, he said the Jamaat leader is under house arrest in Lahore. The Jamaat spokesman also lashed out at the Pakistan government and said the kind of crackdown it had unleashed on his organisation was not even demanded by the UN.
"It has gone far ahead than what was asked by the UN and has put 10 of our leaders under house arrest", he alleged.
Security Council
SC/9527
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
SECURITY COUNCIL AL-QAIDA AND TALIBAN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE ADDS NAMES OF FOUR
INDIVIDUALS TO CONSOLIDATED LIST, AMENDS ENTRIES OF THREE ENTITIES
On 10 December 2008, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the addition of the four entries specified below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations
QI.S.263.08. Name: 1: MUHAMMAD 2: SAEED
QI.L.264.08. Name: 1: ZAKI-UR-REHMAN 2: LAKHVI
QI.A.265.08. Name: 1: HAJI 2: MUHAMMAD 3: ASHRAF
QI.B.266.08. Name: 1: MAHMOUD 2: MOHAMMAD 3: AHMED 4: BAHAZIQ
QE.L.118.05. Name: LASHKAR-E-TAYYIBA
QE.A.5.01. Name: AL RASHID TRUST
QE.A.121.05. Name: AL-AKHTAR TRUST INTERNATIONAL
Eric Schmitt, Mark Mazzetti and Jane Perlez and written by Mr. Schmitt.
Commandos helped civilians away from the Indian Parliament in December 2001 after an attack that some link to Lashkar.
WASHINGTON — Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group suspected of conducting the Mumbai attacks, has quietly gained strength in recent years with the help of Pakistan’s main spy service, assistance that has allowed the group to train and raise money while other militants have been under siege, American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say.
American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to the Mumbai attacks. But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it, the officials said, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks.
As a result of the assault on Mumbai, India’s financial hub, American counterterrorism and military officials say they are reassessing their view of Lashkar and believe it to be more capable and a greater threat than they had previously recognized.
Kashmir fight still on, says LeT
Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:55am IST
By Sheikh Mushtaq
SRINAGAR (Reuters) - The banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for Mumbai attacks that killed 179 people, vowed on Saturday to fight India's "illegal occupation" of Kashmir but said it has no links to the Pakistan government.
Islamabad has said it would abide by a recent U.N. decision placing Hafiz Saeed, Lashkar's founder, on a terrorism sanctions list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The Pakistan-based Lashkar has denied being behind the three-day rampage at some of Mumbai's most famous landmarks, and said it condemned them.
"Lashkar-e-Taiba has no link or relation with the Taliban or al Qaeda but we are fighting India's illegal occupation of Kashmir," Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar, told Reuters by telephone.
http://www.nps.edu/Library/Research/SubjectGuides/SpecialTopics/TerroristProfile/Current/Lashkar%20e-Tayyiba%20(LT).html
Institute fr Peace & Conflict Studies :
http://www.ipcs.org/Kashmir_articles2.jsp?action=showView&kValue=2765&issue=1012&status=article&mod=a&portal=pakistan
July 2005
The crew shooting this film gain incredible access to the training camps of the Lashkar e-Toiba based in Pakistan. The Lashkar e-Toiba purports to train its hundreds of thousands of young members for Islamic Jihad in the troubled region of Kashmir, but is there truth in its denials that the organisation has links to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and that it maintains terrorist cells spawned from that network which is notorious for sponsoring acts of international terrorism?
LeT operative Imran sent to police custody till Jan 22
Mumbai (PTI): An alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative, Imran Shehzad, suspected to be involved in the November
26 terror attack, was on Thursday remanded in police custody till January 22 by a local court. The Mumbai Crime Branch [The Hindu]
LET arose in the early 1990s as the armed wing of the Sunni missionary movement Markaz-ud Dawa-wal-Irshad. Despite being banned by the Government of Pakistan in January 2002, LET continues to operate in Kashmir and engage in or support terrorist activities worldwide. LET was designated pursuant to U.S. Executive Order 13224 on December 20, 2001, and under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 on May 2, 2005. The U.S. Department of State named LET a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on December 26, 2001.
Today's action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing financial, technological, or material support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. Any assets these designees have under U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the designees.Identifying Information
Muhammad Saeed
AKAs: Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
Hafiz Saeed
Hafiz Sahib
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed
Hafez Mohammad Sayeed
Hafiz Mohammad Sayid
Hafiz Mohammad Syeed
Tata Ji
Hafiz Mohammad Sayed
Address: House No. 116E, Mohalla Johar, Town: Lahore, Tehsil
Lahore City, Lahore District, Pakistan
DOB: 5 June 1950
POB: Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan
Father's Name: Kamal-ud-Din
National ID#: 3520025509842-7
Muhammad Saeed is LET's overall leader and chief and plays a key role in LET's operational and fundraising activities worldwide. Saeed oversaw the management of a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2006, including funding of the camp, which prepared militants to fight against Coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Saeed, in 2005, determined where graduates of an LET camp in Pakistan should be sent to fight, and personally organized the infiltration of LET militants into Iraq during a trip to Saudi Arabia. That same year, Saeed arranged for an LET operative to be sent to Europe as LET's European fundraising coordinator.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi
AKAs: Zakir Rehman Lakvi
Zaki Ur-Rehman Lakvi
Zaki Ur-Rehman
Zakir Rehman
Abu Waheed Irshad Ahmad Arshad
Chachajee
Address 1: Barahkoh, P.O. DO, Tehsil and District Islamabad, Pakistan
Address 2: Chak No. 18/IL, Rinala Khurd, Tehsil Rinala Khurd, District
Okara, Pakistan
DOB: 30 December 1960
POB: Okara, Pakistan
Father's Name: Hafiz Aziz-ur-Rehman
National ID#: 61101-9618232-1
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is LET's chief of operations. In this capacity, Lakhvi has directed LET military operations, including in Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq, and Southeast Asia. Lakhvi instructed
LET associates in 2006 to train operatives for suicide bombings. Prior to that, Lakhvi instructed
LET operatives to conduct attacks in well-populated areas.
Lakhvi, in 2004, sent operatives and funds to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. Lakhvi also directed an LET operative to travel to Iraq in 2003 to assess the jihad situation there.
In past years, Lakhvi has also played an important role in LET fundraising activities, reportedly receiving al Qaida-affiliated donations on behalf of LET.
Haji Muhammad Ashraf
AKA: Haji M. Ashraf
DOB: 1 March 1965
PPN: A-374184, Pakistani
Haji Muhammad Ashraf is LET's chief of finance, a position he has held since at least 2003. Ashraf traveled to the Middle East in 2003 and 2004, where he personally collected donations on behalf of LET. Ashraf assisted Saudi Arabia-based LET leadership in 2003 with expanding its organization and increasing its fundraising activities.
Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq
AKAs: Mahmoud Bahaziq
Abu `Abd al-'Aziz
Abu Abdul Aziz
Shaykh Sahib
DOB: 17 August 1943
Alt DOB: 1943
Alt DOB: 1944
POB: India
Nationality: Saudi Arabian
Saudi Registration Number: 4-6032-0048-1
Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq is an LET financier and is credited with being the main financier behind the establishment of the LET and its activities in the 1980s and 1990s. He has also served as the leader of LET in Saudi Arabia. In 2003, Bahaziq coordinated LET's fundraising activities with Saudi nongovernmental organizations and Saudi businessmen, and encouraged LET operatives to continue and accelerate fundraising and organizing activities. As of mid-2005, Bahaziq played a key role in LET's propaganda and media operations.
Muhammad Saeed is LET's overall leader and chief and plays a key role in LET's operational and fundraising activities worldwide. Saeed oversaw the management of a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2006, including funding of the camp, which prepared militants to fight against Coalition forces in Afghanistan. Saeed, in 2005, determined where graduates of an LET camp in Pakistan should be sent to fight, and personally organized the infiltration of LET militants into Iraq during a trip to Saudi Arabia. That same year, Saeed arranged for an LET operative to be sent to Europe as LET's European fundraising coordinator.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is LET's chief of operations. In this capacity, Lakhvi has directed LET military operations, including in Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq, and Southeast Asia. Lakhvi instructed LET associates in 2006 to train operatives for suicide bombings. Prior to that, Lakhvi instructed LET operatives to conduct attacks in well-populated areas. Lakhvi, in 2004, sent operatives and funds to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. Lakhvi also directed an LET operative to travel to Iraq in 2003 to assess the jihad situation there. In past years, Lakhvi has also played an important role in LET fundraising activities, reportedly receiving al Qaida-affiliated donations on behalf of LET.
Arrested
Mumbai terror mastermind among 20 LeT activists held: Report
8 Dec 2008, 1047 hrs IST, PTI
ISLAMABAD: Lashker-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi, accused of masterminding the Mumbai terror attacks, is among over 20 members of the
group arrested by Pakistani security forces during a crackdown in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
WASHINGTON: A "retired" Pakistani army commander who is said to have masterminded the Mumbai carnage and his ideological mentor who founded the
Lashkar-e-Taiba were both named in a US Treasury department notification advancing financial sanctions against terrorists as recently as May this year.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Pakistani army man who the captured gunman Mohammed Ajmal Kasav says trained the LeT terror module that attacked Mumbai is not some shadowy unknown figure as some would make him. A May 27 Treasury notification targeting LeT leadership chronicles his terrorist exploits, which extend beyond India to Iraq and Southeast Asia.
"Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is LeT's chief of operations. In this capacity, Lakhvi has directed LeT military operations, including in Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq, and Southeast Asia. Lakhvi instructed LET associates in 2006 to train operatives for suicide bombings. Prior to that, Lakhvi instructed LeT operatives to conduct attacks in well-populated areas," the notification records.
Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, a Saudi national, is an LET financier and is credited with being the main financier behind the establishment of the LET and its activities in the 1980s and 1990s. He has also served as the leader of LET in Saudi Arabia. In 2003, Bahaziq coordinated LET's fundraising activities with Saudi nongovernmental organizations and Saudi businessmen, and encouraged LET operatives to continue and accelerate fundraising and organizing activities. As of mid-2005, Bahaziq played a key role in LET's propaganda and media operations.
Haji Muhammad Ashraf is LET's chief of finance, a position he has held since at least 2003. Ashraf traveled to the Middle East in 2003 and 2004, where he personally collected donations on behalf of LET. Ashraf assisted Saudi Arabia-based LET leadership in 2003 with expanding its organization and increasing its fundraising activities.
Not all experts agree. "I don't necessarily see that's true," Christine Fair of Rand Corp. said of the contention that there are considerable links between Lashkar and al Qaeda. "Lashkar-e-Taiba has, in general, operated only against India and Afghanistan. They're fighting us in Afghanistan as a Taliban ally
High-ranking al Qaeda operative Abu Zubayda was captured in late 2002 in a Lashkar safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Al Qaeda recruits from Lashkar were among those killed when the U.S. carried out missile strikes against training camps in Afghanistan in the wake of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Westerners who have passed through Lashkar-e-Taiba's training camps include Australian al Qaeda operative David Hicks, convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and Dhiren Barot, the mastermind of a failed gas-cylinder bombing plot in London who prepared detailed blueprints for al Qaeda of buildings in New York's financial district, according to information that emerged in legal proceedings. Mr. Barot, a British subject and a Hindu who converted to Islam, trained with Lashkar, then became an instructor at a mujahideen camp in Afghanistan and joined al Qaeda.
Lashkar has been enmeshed in Pakistan's long struggle with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir, but it has also been a training hub for militant Islamic fighters who joined conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechnya. The group has received funding from donors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, including from an al Qaeda financier, according to U.S. government testimony and Central Intelligence Agency records.
LET Collects donations from the Pakistani community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic NGOs, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen. The LT also maintains a Web site (under the name of its parent organization Jamaat ud-Daawa), through which it solicits funds and provides information on the group’s activities. The amount of LT funding is unknown. The LT maintains ties to religious/military groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya through the MDI fraternal network. In anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistani Government, the LT withdrew funds from bank accounts and invested in legal businesses, such as commodity trading, real estate, and production of consumer goods.
Jamaat transferred money out of most bank accounts: report
Last Updated: 22:41 IST(14/12/2008)
Quote:
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which was labelled a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council for its links to the Mumbai carnage, has been able to transfer money out of most of its public bank accounts, negating the impact of the crackdown by Pakistan, a media report said on Sunday.
The dismantling of the Islamic charity linked to the Mumbai terror attacks is being seriously hampered by Pakistan's difficulties in tracking and seizing millions of dollars the group is believed to have stashed in bank accounts in Pakistan and abroad, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.
The public lead-up to the UN action gave the group ample time to transfer money out of most of its public bank accounts, an unidentified Pakistani finance ministry official was quoted by the US Journal as saying.
The official estimated that the group has moved hundreds of thousands of dollars, "maybe millions" in recent days.
"If we don't take away money, it can reopen any time," the official told the paper. "The money in Pakistan is hidden now. We won't find it."
Jamaat officials, who last week invited reporters to tour their complex outside Lahore and see some of their social-service programmes in action, have been unavailable to comment since Thursday's clampdown; many were either detained or being sought by Pakistani authorities, the Journal said.
As of Friday afternoon, the Journal said, at least one Jamaat-ud-Dawa account remained open for supporters to deposit donations, "at least for the moment."
People who wished could still deposit money at a Lahore branch of Bank Alfalah Ltd., a small lender part-owned by investors in Abu Dhabi, said the bank's operations officer, who, the paper said, would give his name only as Ali.
The Pakistani bank official said neither Jamaat nor the government had asked him to shut the account, which was in the name of Markaz Jamat-ud-Dawa. Markaz means the "headquarters of" in Urdu.
Pakistan's central bank ordered all of Jamaat's assets frozen and accounts closed on Thursday, and Pakistani officials said they believed banks were complying with the order, but wouldn't elaborate or comment directly on the Alfalah account, it added. The account has been open since at least 2005, when fliers urged people to give money to it during the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha.
In Pakistan, Europe and the US, Jamaat has asked donors since 2005 to deposit funds at Bank Alfalah in the name of a separate charity, Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq or IKK, which the US State Department identified in 2006 as an alias for Jamaat, the Journal quoted counter-terrorism officials.
US supporters of the Jamaat have been urged to wire dollars to IKK through the Bank of New York, according to a 2006 snapshot of the Web page captured by terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann, an expert on Lashkar who frequently testifies in criminal cases involving the group, the paper said.
A Bank of New York spokesman said no donations were ever transmitted through the account. On the same page, donations in euros were solicited in Europe through a bank in Munich, the US daily said.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said investigations into Jamaat's assets and funding are now under way.
He said authorities are moving quickly to shut down offices and militant training camps, but added: "The government is not tracking everyone's accounts, frankly speaking."
Funding for the LeT is derived from the Pakistani diaspora, particularly in the Persian Gulf and the United Kingdom, through a network of front organisations and charities. Islamic non government organisations also provide funding to the LeT.
Formed in 1990 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (also known as Jama’at-ud-Da’awa) is based in Muridke near Lahore in Pakistan and is headed by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
Its first presence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was recorded in 1993 when 12 Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries infiltrated across the Line of Control (LoC) in tandem with the Islami Inquilabi Mahaz, a terrorist outfit then active in the Poonch district of J&K.
# Proscription
The LeT is outlawed in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
It was included in the Terrorist Exclusion List by the US Government on December 5, 2001. The US administration designated the Lashkar-e-Toiba as a FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) on December 26, 2001. It is also a banned organization in Britain since March 30, 2001.
The group was proscribed by the United Nations in May 2005.
The military regime of Gen. Pervez Musharraf banned the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan on January 12, 2002.
# Objectives/Ideology
The LeT’s professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Lashkar's ‘agenda’, as outlined in a pamphlet titled Why are we waging jihad includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India. Further, the outfit seeks to bring about a union of all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan. Towards that end, it is active in J&K, Chechnya and other parts of Central Asia.
Hafiz Saeed, a scholar of Islam, has said that the purpose of Jihad is to carry out a sustained struggle for the dominance of Islam in the entire world and to eliminate the evil forces and the ignorant. He considers India, Israel and US to be his prime enemies and has threatened to launch Fidayeen (suicide squad) attacks on American interests too.
The Lashkar-e-Toiba does not believe in democracy and nationalism. According to its ideology, it is the duty of every 'Momin' to protect and defend the interests of Muslims all over the world where Muslims are under the rule of non-Muslim in the democratic system. It has, thus chosen the path of Jihad as the suited means to achieve its goal. Cadres are drawn from the Wahabi school of thought.
Jihad, Hafiz Saeed said during the All Pakistan Ulema Convention held on July 17, 2003, at Lahore, is the only way Pakistan can move towards dignity and prosperity.
The LeT has consistently advocated the use of force and vowed that it would plant the 'flag of Islam' in Washington, Tel Aviv and New Delhi.
# Links
It is closely linked to the Inter-Services Intelligence, the Taliban and al Qaeda.
India’s National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan said on August 11, 2006, that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba is part of the "al Qaeda compact" and is "as big as and omnipotent" as the international terror network. "The Lashkar today has emerged as a very major force. It has connectivity with west Asia, Europe....Actually there was an LeT module broken in Virginia and some people were picked up. It is as big as and omnipotent as al Qaeda in every sense of the term," he told a private news channel. Asked how significant the al Qaeda connection was in India, Narayanan said LeT was the "most visible manifestation" of the al Qaeda in India.
LeT has an extensive network that run across Pakistan and India with branches in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Bangladesh and South East Asia.
The outfit collects donations from the Pakistani community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen. It receives considerable financial, material and other forms of assistance from the Pakistan government, routed primarily through the ISI. The ISI is the main source of LeT's funding. Saudi Arabia also provides funds.
The LeT maintains ties to various religious/military groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya primarily through the al Qaeda fraternal network.
The LeT has also been part of the Bosnian campaign against the Serbs.
It has allegedly set up sleeper cells in the U.S. and Australia, trained terrorists from other countries and has entered new theatres of Jihad like Iraq.
The group has links with many international Islamist terrorist groups like the Ikhwan-ul-Musalmeen of Egypt and other Arab groups.
LeT has a unit in Germany and also receives help from the Al Muhajiraun, supporter of Sharia Group, (Abu Hamza Masari- of Mosque Finsbury Park, North London) and its annual convention is regularly attended by fraternal bodies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Myanmar, USA, Palestine, Bosnia, Philippines, Jordan, Chechnya, etc.
It also has links with the International Sikh Youth Federation (Lakhbir Singh Rode).
# raining and Operational Strategies
The outfit provides training to both militant cadres and the Ulema (religious scholars). Its militant cadres are given two months training in the handling of AK series rifles, LMGs, pistols, rocket launchers and hand grenades. It also provides a 21-day training programme called Daura-e-Aam and a three months specialized training programme called Daura-e-Khas.
The Ulema are provided with a 42-days course. At the time of induction, the young recruits are made to go through a fresher course called Bait-ur-Rizwan.
Lashkar-e-Toiba is credited for having initiated the strategy of Fidayeen (suicide squad) attacks in J&K. It has formed two sub-groups called 'Jaan-e-Fidai' and 'Ibn-e-Tayamiah'. While the first group consists of highly motivated terrorists, the second comprises terrorists suffering from incurable diseases.
Compared to other terrorist outfits in J&K, the LeT has commanded significant attention primarily due to two reasons. First, for its well planned and executed attacks on security force (SF) targets and secondly, for the massacres of non-Muslim civilians.
# Area of Operation
While the primary area of operations of the Lashkar-e-Toiba is Jammu and Kashmir, the outfit has carried out attacks in other parts of India, including in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Kolkata, Gujarat, etc. It reportedly has cells in many cities/towns outside Jammu and Kashmir.
The LeT has been able to network with several Islamist extremist organizations across India, especially in J&K, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. LeT is actively engaged in subversive activities in the States of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Hyderabad, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh at the instance of ISI to expand the frontier of violence outside J&K by subverting fringe elements. Of all the Pakistan-based terrorist groups, the LeT is the only group with support bases across India.
The Lashkar-e-Toiba has training camps spread across Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Its camps, recruitment centres/offices are spread across the length and breadth of Pakistan and PoK in Muzaffarabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan, Quetta, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gilgit (in the Northern Area of PoK), etc. LeT reportedly has 2,200 offices across Pakistan.
# Leadership and Command Structure
The outfit’s headquarters (200 acres) is located at Muridke, 30 kms from Lahore, which was built with contributions and donations from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia being the biggest benefactor.
The headquarters houses a Madrassa (seminary), a hospital, a market, a large residential area for ‘scholars’ and faculty members, a fish farm and agricultural tracts. The LeT also reportedly operates 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, an ambulance service, mobile clinics, blood banks and several seminaries across Pakistan.
LeT publishes its views and opinion through its Website (http://www.jamatuddawa.org/), an Urdu monthly journal, Al-Dawa, which has a circulation of 80,000, and an Urdu weekly, Gazwa. It also publishes Voice of Islam, an English monthly, and Al-Rabat - monthly in Arabic, Mujala-e-Tulba - Urdu monthly for students, Jehad Times - Urdu Weekly.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is the Amir (chief) of Lashkar-e-Toiba. While Yahiya Mujahid serves as the spokesman of the outfit, Maulana Abdul Wahid is one of the senior leaders. Abdullah Muntazer is the ‘Spokesman for International Media’ and editor of the outfit’s Website. Saeed’s son Talha reportedly looks after the LeT activity at its base camp in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Saeed’s son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, is reportedly part of the LeT office in Lahore.
According to a November 2005 report of Rediff, the LeT leadership consisted of: Hafiz Mohammed Saeed (Supreme Commander); Zia-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi alias Chachaji (Supreme Commander, Kashmir); A. B. Rahman-Ur-Dakhil (Deputy Supreme Commander); Abdullah Shehzad alias Abu Anas alias Shamas (Chief Operations Commander, Valley); Abdul Hassan alias MY (Central Division Commander); Kari Saif-Ul-Rahman (North Division Commander); Kari Saif-Ul-Islam (Deputy Commander); Masood alias Mahmood (Area Commander, Sopore); Hyder-e-Krar alias CI (Deputy Commander, Bandipora); Usman Bhai alias Saif-Ul-Islam (Deputy Commander, Lolab); Abdul Nawaz (Deputy Commander, Sogam); Abu Rafi (Deputy Divisional Commander, Baramulla); Abdul Nawaz (Deputy Commander, Handwara); Abu Museb alias Saifulla (Deputy Commander, Budgam);
Its cadres are organised at district levels with ‘district commanders’ in charge. Within Pakistan, the outfit has a network of training camps and branch offices, which undertake recruitment and collection of finances.
It comprises cadres mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan and a sprinkling of militants from Sudan, Bahrain, Central Asia, Turkey and Libya. Funded, armed and trained by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISl, the external intelligence agency of Pakistan), it has presently a little over 750 cadres (this number keeps changing) in Jammu and Kashmir (a vast majority of the foreign mercenaries operating in the Valley).
The policy making apex body consists of Amir (chief), Naib Amir (deputy chief) Finance chief etc. At the field level, it has Chief Commander, Divisional Commander, District Commander, Battalion Commander and down below on army pattern.
The Kashmir struggle left Pakistani groups well-schooled for carrying out attacks like those in Mumbai, Rashid said.
"They were well-versed in urban surveillance and urban terrorism -- these are not Pashtun tribesmen and mullahs," he said. "These were well-trained, sophisticated guys with 15 years of battle experience."
LeT Ammo Depot Nail Pak Lies
27 April 2008
Times Internet Limited
New Delhi: Exposing Pakistan’s claims of dismantling terrorist infrastructure in PoK as hollow, an ammunition depot of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s terrorist camp caught fire, leading to several blasts in Muzaffarabad on Sunday evening. 'Panic gripped the residents as the blasts, which began around 6pm IST, continued for about two hours,' the president of Jammu & Kashmir National Students Federation, Mehmood Beigh, told TOI from Muzaffarabad over phone. He said the terrorist camp is located inside the limits of Muzaffarabad Municipal Corporation at Chila Bandi near Shaive canal. 'ISI and police have blocked all roads leading to the camp. Journalists and common people aren’t being allowed into the area,' he said. Another top-ranking Muzaffarabad-based JKNSF leader, Raja Saba, said Pakistani authorities are unlikely to ever accept that the blasts actually took place, as it would expose the Pakistan government’s lies about the nonexistence of terrorist camps in Muzaffarabad. 'They will give it a different colour, claiming that gas cylinders exploded. After the civilian government took over, ISI’s activities have picked up here. ISI is trying to lure locals into joining the terror camps,' Raja said. Indeed, there has been much activity: ISI is reported to have recently organized three conferences to get terrorist camps up and running. In fact, the Hizbul Mujahideen chief last week addressed an ISI-backed conference in Muzaffarabad and vowed to continue jihad. 'They are trying to recruit terrorists for jihad in Kashmir. ISI is supplying in money and providing arms to terrorists to revamp the terror infrastructure in Kashmir. Today’s blast took place in one of those camps which have received fresh arms and ammunition,' Raja added. Muzaffarabad-based journalist Tariq Naqqash said, 'Apparently, LeT cadres have stopped even the police and the local administration officials from entering the area.' They are being stopped about half a km from the blast site, he added. 'I am waiting for an official statement but the authorities are tightlipped.' Arif Shahid - of All-Party National Alliance, a leading organisation against Pakistan rule in PoK - said terror camps continue to train hardcore terrorists for jihad in Kashmir. 'We’ve been crying ourselves hoarse and asking Islamabad to throw these jihadis out of our land. We don’t want them here. But our repeated pleas have been falling on deaf ears,' he said. 'Extremist elements in Pakistan continue to lure the youths towards jihad. Not just this, ISI continues to get foreign nationals - Afghans, Saudis and Arabs - for Kashmir jihad.' He said the training camps were running under the garb of hospitals. Kashmiri nationalists, resenting Islamabad’s occupation of PoK, have been running campaigns against the terror camps. In 2007, JKNSF organised a march against terrorist camps in PoK after LeT terrorists abducted a Muzaffarabad University student. There are believed to be at least 36 jihadi training camps in PoK, housing about 3,660 cadres. Majority of these camps are located in Muzaffarabad and Kotli. LeT maintains, among others, the Danna and Abdul-Bin-Masud camps in Muzaffarabad and Badli camp in Kotli with 500, 300 and 300 jihadis respectively. Similarly, Hizbul has, among others, the Jangal Mangal camp in Muzaffarabad and another one at Mangla with at least 300 cadres each. Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, while saying that there has been a decrease in violence, have repeatedly maintained that terrorist infrastructure in PoK remains alive and kicking.
Lashkar's Legacy
* 1990: Lashkar-e-Taiba is formed in Afghanistan.
* March 2001: U.K. bans Lashkar.
* Dec. 13: Attack on Indian Parliament leaves 15 dead; Pakistan-based groups including Lashkar are blamed.
* December: U.S. designates Lashkar a Foreign Terrorist Organization. British national Richard Reid, who trained with Lashkar, tries unsuccessfully to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight by lighting explosives in his shoe.
* January 2002: Lashkar banned in Pakistan.
* March-April 2004: U.S. forces in Baghdad detain Pakistani national Dilshad Ahmad, who served between 1997 and 2001 as a Lashkar commander.
* August: Dhiren Barot, a British national who spent time training with Lashkar, is arrested, and in 2006 is convicted, for planning a bombing in London and providing al Qaeda with materials to target U.S. financial buildings.
* Oct. 29, 2005: A series of explosions in a busy shopping area in New Delhi kills at least 62; Lashkar is suspected.
* July 11, 2006: Bomb blasts in commuter trains in Mumbai kill at least 190. Police say Lashkar is responsible.
* July 25, 2007: More than a dozen Muslims, including at least one Pakistani and several U.S. citizens of Pakistani origin, are sentenced to imprisonment in the U.S. for their association with Lashkar and for conspiracy to wage jihad against India.
* May 27, 2008: U.S. Treasury says it will freeze the assets of four leaders of Lashkar.
* Sept. 15: Bomb blasts kill 21 in New Delhi; India blames group with ties to Lashkar.
* Nov. 26-28: Attacks on hotels, a Jewish center, a train station and other sites in Mumbai kill 171. Lashkar denies involvement.
Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal
Attacks & Links
By GHULAM HASNAIN Islamabad and Muzaffarabad
Four bearded militants warm themselves at a gas heater in an Islamabad safe house. A wireless set suddenly crackles. "Our boys have entered Srinagar Airport," a grave, distant-sounding voice announces. "Pray for them. It has now been 15 minutes." The voice, speaking in Urdu and broadcasting from deep within India's part of Kashmir, is detailing the progress of a suicide mission by Lashkar-i-Taiba, a ruthless, Pakistan-based militant group waging war to wrest Kashmir from India. The four men in the safe house, also members of Lashkar-i-Taiba, immediately go into fervent prayer. They are not the only ones to receive the radio transmission. Other militant groups in Pakistan can tune into the same frequency. So can the Pakistani military. A phone in the house rings, and one of the militants answers. He is asked what's happening. His reply: "Why don't you find out from your side?" After hanging up, he explains the caller was a Pakistani army colonel.
That scene occurred in early January. Five Lashkar operatives disguised as police officers attempted to attack the Srinagar airport that day. But Indian army guards turned them away, and the operation was aborted. Two weeks ago, however, a second attempt succeeded. Six would-be martyrs, dressed in police uniforms and driving a stolen government jeep, reached the outer defense gate of the airport and indiscriminately tossed grenades and opened fire with rifles. Back in the Islamabad safe house, a coded message came through at 2:15 p.m. saying the men had reached their target. Abu Ammar, a 30-year-old Pakistani veteran of the Afghan war—his face is scarred from shrapnel and his right hand is mangled—knelt and touched his forehead to the floor in prayer. "I have learned that whenever you succeed in your mission, just bow down, thank God and hail his greatness," he said. After a three-hour gun battle at the airport's perimeter, all six of Abu Ammar's men were dead, along with four policemen. (Two civilians were killed and 12 injured.)
LeT publishes its views and opinion through its website, an Urdu-language monthly journal, Al-Dawa, and an Urdu weekly, Gazwa. It also publishes several other magazines, including Voice of Islam, an English-language monthly.
LET Website
Journal
Al-Dawa, and an Urdu weekly, & Gazwa
From the Frontier Post:
14 jihadi training camps wound up
By Aqeel Yousafzai PESHAWAR: The government has snapped all links with the 17 organisations of the AJK-based Jihad Council, an alliance wedded to the cause of Indian-held Kashmir’s liberation. “Fourteen training camps of various jihadi outfits have been wound up and intelligence agencies are trying to widen the gulf between these organizations,†a knowledgeable source said on Sunday. In an angry reaction to “the U-turn,†the Jihad Council comprising Harkatul Mujahideen, Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami and Jaish-i-Muhammad have decided to support activities against the activities. “Not these organisations have parted ways with the Establishment, they have also declared any move against the Musharraf-led government will be deemed legitimate,†an official told The Frontier Post. Requesting not to be named because of the sensitive nature of his job, the official said the government had withdrawn incentives to 14 training camps, with a history spanning almost 40 years. Apparently, he believed, the decision on closing down the facilities had been taken under mounting pressure on Islamabad from the United States and India to stop cross-border incursions into Indian-occupied Kashmir. Camps run by Hezbul Mujahideen (Khewra), al-Badr (Ugi), Harkatul Mujahideen (Batrasi), Jaish-i-Muhammad (Attar Sheesha), al-Barq (RawlaKot), Lashkar-i-Taiba (Batrali), Tehreekul Mujahideen (Muzaffarabad), Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami (Kotli), Harkarul Jihad Islami (Plandri), Hezb-i-Islami (Gulpur, Kotli) and Hezbul Momineen (Muzaffarabad) have been shut. According to the source, these camps enjoyed government’s patronage up until the first quarter of the current year and various cells were working to strengthen them. A recent survey shows Hezb-i-Islami, a pro-Jamaat-i-Islami organisation, received Rs.15 million a month besides other incentives like daily allowances and operation costs. Special Operation Intelligence Unit (SOIU) and Refugees Management Cell (RMC), responsible for extending financial, logistic, arms and training assistance to the camps, were dealing with the jihadi organisations. RMC recently withdrew vehicles from these outfits and huge funds - meant for daily allowances of the commanders and fighters - were frozen. Protesting the unexpected twist in government’s policy, several jihadi organisations recently staged a sit-in and chanted anti-government slogans in front of the RMC Headquarters near Kana Pul. Until 2002, different retired army officers headed the RMC. After the government abolished the 14 training camps, the source said, freedom fighters shifted their ammunition to safer places.
Anywhere
The Indian government holds Lashkar-e-Toiba responsible for the series of massacres on August 1-2, 2000, in which more than 100 people, most of who were unarmed civilians, were killed.
Lashkar-e-Toiba has an estimated strength of 300 militants and is believed to be headed by Mohammed Latif. It operates in the Srinagar Valley and the districts of Poonch, Rajauri and Doda. It is also believed to run training camps at Kotli, Sialkot and Samani in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (Azad Kashmir).
Houses
Militant groups have roots all over Pakistan, from their well-equipped training centres in Muzaffarabad—the capital of Pakistan's slice of Kashmir—and the country's North-West Frontier province to the nice, middle-class houses in Lahore and Islamabad. Those houses may look no different from their neighbors at first glance, but what about the strange antennas on the roofs, the international phone lines and the transient occupants with unkempt hair, camouflage jackets and hiking boots? And what of those unmarked four-wheel-drive vehicles pulling up at dawn with clockwork precision? Here is an inside look at how Pakistan runs its covert war in Kashmir
Camps run by Hezbul Mujahideen (Khewra), al-Badr (Ugi), Harkatul Mujahideen (Batrasi), Jaish-i-Muhammad (Attar Sheesha), al-Barq (RawlaKot), Lashkar-i-Taiba (Batrali), Tehreekul Mujahideen (Muzaffarabad), Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami (Kotli), Harkarul Jihad Islami (Plandri), Hezb-i-Islami (Gulpur, Kotli) and Hezbul Momineen (Muzaffarabad) have been shut.
ISI helped Lashkar-e-Taiba to become a more effective terror outfit
December 8th, 2008 - 2:04 pm ICT by ANI -
Washington, Dec 8 (ANI): The Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group said to be behind the Mumbai terror attacks, has quietly gained strength in recent years to become a more effective militant outfit with the help of Pakistans main spy agency, the ISI.
The assistance of the ISI has allowed the LeT to train and raise money while other militants have been under siege, The New York Times quotes US intelligence and counter-terrorism officials, as saying.
American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to the Mumbai terror attacks, but the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it.
'Non-State Actors'
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/vi ... 55456.html
Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:04 PM
(Source: Providence Journal)trackingThe murderous three-day assault on India's financial and entertainment capital of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), in which about 200 people were killed, points to the extreme danger posed by Pakistan. That nation is a frighteningly unstable nuclear power that functions less like a country than "chaos with a parliament," in the memorable phrase of military analyst/columnist Ralph Peters.
The attack, U.S. and Indian investigators believe, was the work of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militia group with links to al- Qaida and to Muslims fighting India over the disputed region of Kashmir. The group's members practice Wahabism, a radical form of Islam born in Saudi Arabia and devoted to the hatred and conquest of those who are not Muslim fundamentalists.
The militia has also received direct support from Pakistan's rogue Inter-Service Intelligence agency, despite the Pakistan government's nominal attempts to ban the group under pressure from the Bush administration after 9/11. Lashkar-e-Taiba operates essentially as a "state within a state" in Pakistan, providing a wide array of services to its constituents, from medical care to training in mass murder
"Charities"
Inter-relations
http://www.silobreaker.com/FlashNetwork.aspx?DrillDownItems=5_934388231&FuzzyEvent=true
Jamaat-ud-Dawa
Lashkar's parent organization, a charitable group called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, or "Party of Preachers," is increasing in influence, especially in the central Pakistani province of Punjab, where it even arbitrates village disputes. At its headquarters in Muridke, a few hours' drive from Lahore, it runs a 75-acre campus with an Islamic university, two schools and a hospital. It has set up schools across Punjab and other parts of Pakistan where government schools are nonexistent or poorly funded.
Pre-Post Attack
The chief of the Jamaatut Dawa, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, was in Sukkur, a city 363 kilometers north of the southern port city of Karachi, on November 26 and was scheduled to travel to Karachi. But after the Mumbai attack on November 27, he was urgently summoned to Rawalpindi, the garrison city twinned with Islamabad, to attend a high-profile meeting held in the Office of Strategic Organization.
He was told that the Indian air force was on high alert and asked what possible plans he had if India unleashed a war. Saeed assured that the LET would be the first line of defense against the Indian navy in the Arabian Sea through its marine operations, and that it would escalate its activities in India and Kashmir. He added that he would tell militants in Pakistan's troubled North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to hold their fire against the Pakistani security forces.
At the same time, because of the threat of Indian strikes, all militant training camps in Muzzafarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, were evacuated.
A top-level ISI official then held a background briefing for journalists in Islamabad in which he said if India mobilized its forces along the border, all Pakistani forces would be withdrawn from NWFP, where they are fighting Taliban and other militants. Controversially, he said that hardline Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and others would support Pakistan if India waged war on the country.
Further, the Pakistani security forces initiated a dialogue process with the Taliban in the Swat Valley to discuss terms and conditions for pulling out the Pakistani troops.
Pakistani authorities arrest dozens of Jamaat-ud-Dawa members
Saturday, December 13, 2008 10:00 GMT
Pakistani Authorities arrested dozens of Jamaat-ud-Dawa members and closed its offices in Karachi, Mazfar Abad, Haidar Abad and other cities and that as pressures exerted on Islamabad mount in order to urge the same to take action against the extremists accused of committing the attacks that took place in Mumbai Indian city, last month.
13 Dec 2008, 1119 hrs IST
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI/PESHAWAR: Pakistan police have reportedly arrested 167 Jamaat-ud-Dawa operatives and closed down over 50 of its offices
across the country in a continued crackdown against the banned group.
The Daily Times quoted official sources in Islamabad as saying that three offices of the Jamaat-ud-Daawa in the national capital were sealed on Friday.
Islamabad's Chief Commissioner Kamran Lashari said no arrests were made initially, but later in a raid on a fourth office, six operatives were arrested.
In Peshawar and other parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the Jamaat-ud-Dawa claimed that a 150 of its operatives had been arrested and 46 of its offices sealed. It also said that many of its workers have gone underground.
The Jaamatud Dawa headquarters at Peshawar's Fawara Chowk, and offices of the banned Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rashid Trust in the Saddar, Hashtnagri, Gulbahar and Yakatoot areas were also forced to close down.
In Rawalpindi, five Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices were sealed, while in Lahore, surety bonds were taken from Jamaat-ud-Dawa operatives, police sources told the Daily Times.
In Multan, police sealed a Jamaat-ud-Dawa office, a school and a dispensary during a midnight operation.
Police also sealed Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices in Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Arifwala, Bahawalnagar and Khanewal.
In Sindh, eleven operatives of the banned group were arrested and six offices and six seminaries were sealed. Jamaat-ud-Dawa officials, however, claimed 100 operatives had been held and 35 offices sealed.
Listed
Jamat-ud-Dawah added to UN terror list
by India Voice for India Voice December 11, 2008
UN Security Council committee Wednesday designated Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the frontal organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a global terrorist organisation and its leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed a terrorist in the wake of their alleged involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.Now they are subject to freezing of assets, travel ban and arms embargo.India had urged the 15-member UN body to 'proscribe' them as they were involved in the Mumbai attacks which killed more than 170 people including several foreigners.
Schools
Its most visible presence is through Jamaat ud-Dawa, the self-described political and religious movement that U.S. officials believe maintains active ties with Lashkar.
Pakistan raids Lashkar-e-Taiba camp
Posted 10 hours 11 minutes ago
Pakistani security forces have raided a camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), sources said, in a strike against the militant group blamed by India for last month's deadly attacks on Mumbai.
Local man Nisar Ali said the operation began on Sunday afternoon (local time) in Shawai on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani side of disputed Kashmir region.
"I don't know details as the entire area was sealed off, but I heard two loud blasts in the evening after a military helicopter landed there," Mr Ali said.
An official with the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which is linked to LeT, said security forces had taken over the camp.
Islamabad, Dec 8 (IANS) Apparently acting under international pressure, Pakistan has cracked down on the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that India has blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks and arrested the group’s commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi, media reports Monday said. “Security forces have launched a ‘quiet’ crackdown on activists belonging to the banned jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in different parts of the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” Dawn said.
In Muzaffarabad, the “capital” of Pakistani Kashmir, “a major army operation was under way in the city suburbs on Sunday against a site being used by the Jamaatud Dawa (as the LeT is known since it was banned), which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Sources said that more than 20 members of the banned organisation and Lashkar-i-Taiba’s ‘commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi had been arrested”, the newspaper added.
Shawai on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad
Shawai near Muzaffarabad
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/Article.aspx?id=118
Backgrounder
Profile: Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) (a.k.a. Lashkar e-Tayyiba, Lashkar e-Toiba; Lashkar-i-Taiba)
Jayshree Bajoria, Staff Writer
Council on Foreign Relations
Friday, December 5, 2008; 11:44 AM
Introduction
The Indian government has often accused the group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) of terrorist attacks, including the November 2008 deadly assault in Mumbai that killed nearly two hundred people and injured more than three hundred. LeT is among several banned Pakistani militant groups that experts say received backing from Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, to fight in Indian-administered Kashmir. Analysts say the group continues to operate freely inside Pakistan under a different name and has now become a global terrorist organization.
Origins of a Movement
Lashkar-e-Taiba, meaning "army of the pure" has been active since 1993. It is the military wing of the well-funded Pakistani Islamist organization Markaz-ad-Dawa-wal-Irshad, which was founded in 1989 and recruited volunteers to fight alongside the Taliban. During the 1990s, experts say LeT received instruction and funding from Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in exchange for a pledge to target Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir and to train Muslim extremists on Indian soil. Pakistan's government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism.
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Until it was banned in Pakistan in 2002, LeT claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, including an attack on the army barracks at Delhi's Red Fort in 2000, killing three people; a January 2001 attack on Srinagar airport that killed five Indians; and an attack in April 2002 against Indian border security forces that left at least four dead. But after being outlawed, it has not admitted to attacks. It denied responsibility for the November 2008 attack in Mumbai, the July 2006 attack on the Mumbai commuter rail, and the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, despite the Indian government's allegations.
Husain Haqqani, now Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, wrote about jihadist groups in a 2005 essay while he was a visiting scholar at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In the essay, he said: "The most significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion (PDF) [influenced by the doctrine of 18th-century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn-Abdul Wahhab] is Lashkar-e-Taiba" which is backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services. According to South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a terrorism database on the region, LeT's professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The LeT's agenda, as outlined in a pamphlet titled, "Why are we waging jihad," includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India, it says. The pamphlet also declares the United States, Israel, and India as existential enemies of Islam, writes Haqqani. The portal adds: LeT "seeks to bring about a union of all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan." According to Haqqani, LeT justifies its ideology by the Quranic verse that says, "You are obligated to fight even though it is something you do not like" (2:216).
Leadership and Funding
The group has its headquarters in Muridke near Lahore in Pakistan, say experts, and is headed by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, a former Islamic-studies professor. In December 2008, New Delhi demanded that Islamabad hand over Saeed as a suspect wanted for terrorism in India, including the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. SATP says LeT's headquarters complex houses a madrassa (seminary), a hospital, a market, a large residential area for the group's scholars and faculty members, a fish farm, and agricultural tracts. The terrorism portal says the group operates 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, an ambulance service, mobile clinics, blood banks, and several seminaries across Pakistan. The U.S. State Department says the actual size of the group is unknown but contends it has several thousand members in the Kashmir region. It says most LeT members are Pakistanis from madrassas across Pakistan and Afghanistan. It also notes the group is alleged to augment its strength through collaboration with terrorist groups comprised of non-Pakistanis. The group uses assault rifles, light and heavy machine guns, mortars, explosives, and rocket-propelled grenades. LeT publishes its views and opinion through its website, an Urdu-language monthly journal, Al-Dawa, and an Urdu weekly, Gazwa. It also publishes several other magazines, including Voice of Islam, an English-language monthly.
According to most sources, the group collects donations from the Pakistani expatriate community in the Persian Gulf and Britain as well as from Islamic NGOs, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen. Experts say it also receives funding from the ISI and Saudi Arabia. LeT also coordinates its charitable activities through its front organization Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JUD), which spearheaded humanitarian relief to the victims of the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.
Banned Organization
India blamed the LeT for the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, and mobilized some 700,000 troops along the Pakistan border, threatening war unless Islamabad ended all cross-border infiltration of Islamic militants. This action triggered a corresponding Pakistani military mobilization. Washington helped defuse tensions, say experts, by formally acknowledging the link between Kashmiri terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and the Pakistani state for the first time. The U.S. addition of LeT to its Foreign Terrorist Organizations List in 2002 forced former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to ban the group inside Pakistan.
Experts say the group then went underground, splintered, and began using different names, and stopped claiming responsibility for attacks. In an August 2008 report (PDF), K. Alan Kronstadt, a specialist in South Asian affairs for the Congressional Research Service, writes LeT is now called Jamaat-ud-Dawah (the Society for Preaching). India says that over the last several years, LeT has split into two factions, al-Mansurin and al-Nasirin.
Under U.S. pressure, Musharraf placed Jamaat-ud-Dawah on a watch list in November 2003. However, Haqqani wrote in 2005 that Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to move against LeT or Jamaat-ud-Dawah. He notes that, while LeT scaled down armed attacks against India to help Pakistan honor its commitments to the United States and India, Saeed remained free and continued to expand his organization despite divisions in its leadership.
Experts say during the massive earthquake in the Kashmir region in 2005, Jamaat- ud-Dawah became a major player in relief and reconstruction efforts. Since then, the BBC reports the group has again been allowed to openly collect funds in Pakistan officially for reconstruction work. Many of their offices have reopened and its members have played a prominent role in rebuilding.
The Indian government blamed the LeT for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Indian security officials said one of the captured attackers revealed under questioning that he was from Pakistan's Punjab province, belonged to the LeT, and had been trained in militant camps inside Pakistan (Hindu). LeT is also suspected of involvement in the December 2001 attack of New Delhi's Parliament, the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, and the February 2007 blast of a train running between India and Pakistan. A little-known group called Lashkar-e-Qahar in July 2006 said it was associated with LeT and orchestrated the Mumbai bombings. New Delhi has also accused the Student Islamic Movement of India of connections with LeT and the Mumbai blasts as well as terrorist attacks in August 2003.
In its 2008 report on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department said schools run by the Jamaat-ud-Dawah are "considered to be a front organization of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, serve as recruitment centers for extremists."
Possible links to al-Qaeda
The U.S. State Department says a senior al-Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah was captured at an LeT safe house in Faisalabad in Pakistan in 2002, which suggested that some LeT members were facilitating the movement of al-Qaeda members in Pakistan.
The U.S. State Department's 2007 country report on terrorism says Pakistan-based LeT and other Kashmir-focused groups continued regional attack planning. "In 2007, Kashmir-focused groups continued to support attacks in Afghanistan, and operatives trained by the groups" continued to feature in al-Qaeda's transnational attack planning, it contends.
Ashley Tellis, a senior associate for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says LeT has grown into a terrorist organization of global reach (CNN). According to Tellis, LeT today operates in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and has been noticed in Iraq. It has fundraising operations in western Europe, and in Africa, he says.
The LeT aims to liberate Muslims within the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir and to merge these with Pakistan. It aims to create an Islamic state covering Pakistan and Kashmir with regional areas covering Muslims in north and south India. The Amir of the LeT, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, has called for jihad to create an Islamic state in Pakistan and for jihad to be waged against un-Islamic states, citing Chechnya and Afghanistan as models for such an international jihad.
------------------------------
Husain Haqqani, now Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, wrote about jihadist groups in a 2005 essay while he was a visiting scholar at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In the essay, he said: "The most significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion (PDF) [influenced by the doctrine of 18th-century Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn-Abdul Wahhab] is Lashkar-e-Taiba" which is backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services. According to South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a terrorism database on the region, LeT's professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The LeT's agenda, as outlined in a pamphlet titled, "Why are we waging jihad," includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India, it says. The pamphlet also declares the United States, Israel, and India as existential enemies of Islam, writes Haqqani. The portal adds: LeT "seeks to bring about a union of all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan." According to Haqqani, LeT justifies its ideology by the Quranic verse that says, "You are obligated to fight even though it is something you do not like"
According to Western intelligence officials, Lashkar was formed in 1989 with the assistance of Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, with Mr. Saeed as its head collaborator.
Known Facts
Listed in Australia 9 November 2003, re-listed 5 June 2005, 7 October 2005 and 10 September 2007.
The following information is based on publicly available details about 'Laskhar-e-Tayyiba (LeT - 'Army of the Pure and Righteous'), which is the military wing of Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI). The LeT is also known as Paasban-e-Kashmir and Paasban-i-Ahle-Hadith. These details have been corroborated by material from intelligence investigations into the activities of the LeT. ASIO assesses that the details set out below are accurate and reliable.
The LeT is the military wing of Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI). The MDI is a Pakistan based Sunni (Wahabi) Islamic fundamentalist organisation centered on Muridke, near Lahore, and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan. The MDI was formed in 1987 by Abdullah Azam Saeed, who was killed in an explosion in Peshawar in 1989, and Zafar Iqbal. These subsequently formed the LeT as the military wing of the MDI two years later in 1989.
The LeT is one of the three largest and best-trained groups fighting in Kashmir against India and is closely associated with a number of militant Islamic groups active in the India/Pakistan region, including Jaish-i-Mohammed with whom it was implicated by the Indian Government in the attack on the Indian Parliament building. The LeT is organised on a military structure under an Amir with regional commanders being responsible for military districts. It is a highly secretive organisation that often seeks to conceal the identities of its senior members.
The LeT has primarily operated within Kashmir and India's Jammu region although it has also been implicated in attacks in New Dehli. It uses hit and run tactics but has also used suicide squads to target Indian security forces and police stations.
The LeT's exact membership numbers are not known however it has several hundred members in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, and in India's southern Kashmir. Most LeT members are recruited through madrassas (Koranic schools) in Pakistan and are not Kashmiris, rather they mostly comprise Pakistanis and Afghans. The LeT runs training camps, some of which are mobile camps, within Pakistan, in Pakistan controlled areas of Kashmir (at Kotli, Sialkot and Samani) and it had trained in Afghanistan until late 2001.
The LeT maintains links with Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East and Chechnya, including Jaish-i-Mohammed. Links between al-Qa'ida and other Islamic terrorist groups such as LeT tend to be personal and ideological. These groups cooperate where this is to their mutual advantage, including both in training and in undertaking operations. LeT and al-Qa'ida share some common objectives and LeT members would be likely to be influenced by statements by Osama bin Laden and his close associates.
The United States Treasury has imposed financial sanctions on four people linked to the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, on the grounds that they have links with al Qaeda. The US treasury has regarded the group as “a murderous al Qaeda affiliate” that has shown its willingness to murder civilians in order to advance its cause.
“LiT (Lashkar-i-Taiba)’s transnational nature makes it crucial for governments worldwide to do all they can to stifle LiT’s fundraising and operations,” said Stuart Levey, the treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. The US government has said that the group has been carrying out attacks on military and civilian targets since 1993.
The four men targeted include Mohammad Saeed, regarded as the group’s leader, who has played a major role in organising the movement’s fund-raising and operational activities. The other men blacklisted include Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the group’s chief of operations, Haji Mohammad Ashraf, in charge of the group’s finances, and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq who is said to be a major financier of LiT.
The imposition of sanctions means that the group’s US-based assets will be frozen and that Americans will be prohibited from doing business with them, or any of their affiliates. Lashkar-i-Taiba (Soldiers of the Pure) is one of the most feared militant groups fighting Indian control in occupied Kashmir. Although President Pervez Musharraf banned the group in January 2002 under US pressure, the group still manages to operate inside Pakistan.
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US to freeze assets of 4 members of militant group
WASHINGTON, May 27: The United States Treasury said on Tuesday it had decided to freeze the assets of four prominent members of a militant Pakistan-based group with alleged links to Al Qaeda.
The four are leaders of Lashkar-i-Taiba (LiT), an outfit that has often claimed staging attacks on the Indian military in occupied Kashmir since 1993, the department said. The State Department had designated it a foreign terrorist organisation in 2001.
The group’s “transnational nature makes it crucial for governments worldwide to do all they can to stifle LiT’s fund-raising and operations”, said Stuart Levey, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Any assets these men have under US jurisdiction will be frozen, and Americans will be prohibited from doing business with them, Treasury said.
The four included Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, described by Treasury as the LiT chief who has played a major role in the organisation’s operational and fund-raising activities.
It named the others as Pakistan-born Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the chief of operations; Haji Mohammad Ashraf, the chief of finance, and India-born Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, described as the main LiT financier in the 1980s and 1990s.—Reuters
USA State Dept
The U.S. State Department lists the Jamaat ud Daawa "charity" as a terrorist organization front for the LeT:
Acting under the authority of Section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, as amended, and in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, I hereby determine that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba uses or has used the following aliases in addition to those listed above: Jamaat-ud-Dawa, JUD, Jama'at al-Dawa, Jamaat ud-Daawa, Jamaat ul-Dawah, Jamaat-ul-Dawa, Jama'at-i-Dawat, Jamaiat-ud-Dawa, Jama'at-ud-Da'awah, Jama'at-ud-Da'awa, Jamaati-ud-Dawa, and Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq.
I hereby amend the designation of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (and its aliases) to add the following names as aliases together with any transliterations of these names: Jamaat-ud-Dawa, aka JUD, aka Jama'at al-Dawa, aka Jamaat ud-Daawa, aka Jamaat ul-Dawah, aka Jamaat-ul-Dawa, aka Jama'at-i-Dawat, aka Jamaiat-ud-Dawa, aka Jama'at-ud-Da'awah, aka Jama'at-ud-Da'awa, aka Jamaati-ud-Dawa, aka Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq.
Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of State, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 06-4005 Filed 4-26-06; 5:00 pm]
Analysts say Lashkar began fragmenting, and to some extent reinventing itself, after Pakistan and India agreed to a Kashmir border truce in late 2003, which stemmed guerrilla infiltration of the Indian side. Feeling that the Kashmiri jihad had lost its momentum with Pakistani peace overtures to India, some adherents, while maintaining ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, turned their attention to global jihad.
Al Qaeda
In recent years, evidence has emerged, according to current and former U.S. and allied counter-terrorism officials, that the group has been working more closely with Al Qaeda and other extremist groups.
"In my opinion, this is an Al Qaeda-planned attack using local surrogates in order to relieve pressure on them in [the tribal areas]," said Ahmed Rashid, a Lahore-based author who writes about Pakistani militants. "What better way to do that than create a conflict between India and Pakistan?
The group’s public face, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, runs Islamic schools and charity works and maintains a 75-acre campus about 15 miles north of Lahore, at Muridke
Lashkar-e-Taiba's alleged social wing, which gained prominence after Lashkar was officially banned in 2002, operates openly on a sprawling campus outside the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Its head, Hafiz Saeed, was one of the founders of Lashkar and is on a list of about 20 militant suspects India has demanded be handed ove
Muridke
extensive complex in Muridke, outside Lahore. Followers showed off classrooms and dormitories, though they did not allow photos. They insisted that the group is an educational and charitable institution and nothing more
Good overview article.
Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal, a website dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion commentary on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard framework offered by government officials and the mainstream corporate media, particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism" and events in the Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online publications.
SOCIAL networking sites and blogs already bustle with messages and images on normal days. Last week, traffic shot up, as eyewitnesses posted gruesome reports on the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, on 26 Nov 2008.
Other than going to the websites of news organisations for the latest reports and other relevant information, people are relying on websites like micro-blogging service Twitter, photo-sharing utility Flickr, and blogs to exchange information.
Too Quick
Twitter reports may mislead as they are "hot off the press".
He cited the example of Tom, who wrote in Tom's Tech Blog
"... tweets are not news as they were not verified.
Tom wrote: “If you watch Twitter you'll see people reporting an attack at the Marriot Hotel in Mumbai. The problem is there was NO ATTACK on the Marriot. The Ramada Hotel next door was attacked by several gunmen but nothing's happened at the Marriot.
“Now imagine, if you're someone who has family or friends at the Marriot right now. You'd be scared out of your mind over information that's completely false. " ....
Popularity of LeT zooms on jihadi websites, chatrooms
13 Dec 2008, 0152 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. Even as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), alongwith its parent body Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), battles
international sanctions, its popularity in Al Qaida chatrooms and websites seems to have shot through the roof after the Mumbai terror attacks.
These chatrooms have been flooded by complimentary messages for LeT with some even describing it as a force on par with Al Qaida in waging global jihad. Not surprisingly, many of those who have exchanged such messages in online debating rooms have no qualms about describing themselves as wannabe LeT terrorists and exhort the outfit to carry out more such attacks. These messages are also marked by vituperative utterances against the US, UK and Israel, according to the Washington based SITE Intelligence Group.
The monitoring agency has also reported about a `jihadist' who has exhorted Muslims to use networking site Facebook for propaganda. This plea was apparently made on a blog protected by password.
The way LeT has been eulogised in these messages would suggest that it is no longer a regional organisation bogged down by Pakistan's strategic interests in J&K. Some of these electronic terrorists, who also dole out information on how to join LeT, urge the outfit for similar strikes in the US and UK. Ajmal Amir Kasab and the nine others involved in the Mumbai attack are described as heroes.
According to reports in the US media, the contents have led to fear among security agencies that similar attacks can be carried out there too. In fact, so much so, that the New York Police Department has sent three of its officers to Mumbai to study the attacks in detail to prevent such attacks there.
It's well known that Al Qaida operates a network of websites which are used for general training, recruitment and indoctrination. Previously, LeT never managed to occupy much space in these websites because the outfit never managed to fire the imagination of gullible Muslim youths in the Middle East and adjoining areas. The Mumbai attacks, however, have clearly helped LeT emerged out of the shadows of Al Qaida as evident by the flurry of complementary messages on these websites.
http://tweetgrid.com/grid?l=0&q1=Mumbai+
Twitter: Lessons from Mumbai
Posted by Connie Reece on December 2, 2008 at 1:54 am
As a news junkie, and one with an interest in global terrorism, I was glued to my computer monitor for a large part of the almost 60-hour siege at the historic Taj Hotel in Mumbai and the related terror attacks. I had NDTV from New Delhi in one browser window; CNN/IBN streaming in another. And, of course, I was closely following the conversation on Twitter.
Lessons :http://everydotconnects.com/2008/12/02/twitter-lessons-from-mumbai/
Tweets
Google Youtube Listing :
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,970 for Mumbai Terrorist Attacks (Dec 11,2008)
Overseas Security Advisory Council presentation on Mumbai Combined Arms Operation, November 26-28, 2008, (Report Current as of December 1)
Slideshow Transcript
1. Slide 1: Overseas Security Advisory Council Mumbai Combined Arms Operation November 26-28, 2008 (Report Current as of December 1) The contents of this (U) presentation in no way represent the policies, views, or attitudes of the United States Department of State, or the United States Government, except as otherwise noted (e.g., travel advisories, public statements). The presentation was compiled from various open sources and (U) embassy reporting.
2. Slide 2: Overseas Security Advisory Council The Attack • At least 195 Dead – At least 6 Americans • Over 325 injured • Café Leopold • CST Station • Cama Hospital • Taj Hotel • Oberoi/Trident • Nariman House (Jewish Center) • Other reports – Movie theater, police station, taxi cab explosions
3. Slide 3: Overseas Security Advisory Council Badhwar Park Tactics – Entering City • 10-man team chartered the MV Alpha cargo ship out of Karachi (506nm from Mumbai) • To avoid detection by Indian Coast Guard, hijacked a fishing trawler India Gateway (note Taj in • Inflatable rafts carried background) teams to India Gateway and/or Badhwar Park at 9 p.m. local • 4 teams split off
4. Slide 4: Overseas Security Advisory Council Tactics – Continued • Tactic 1: Hit and run • Tactic 2: Seize and hold – Terrorists quickly attacked – Terrorists gained entry and with AK-47s, grenades immediately started – Taxis taken to destination indiscriminate firing • Grenades left inside after – Hostages taken exiting • It appears that most were – Aimed at large groups killed outright in short time – Retreated from security, – Used knowledge of facility moved on to other targets layout to advantage – Used at Cama hospital, – Established strong-points to CST, and Café Leopold defend against security – Used at Oberoi/Trident, Taj, Nariman House
5. Slide 5: Overseas Security Advisory Council Tactics – Hit and Run • Indiscriminate firing and grenade lobbing – Main hall of the CST terminal targeted (pictured) • Terrorist team at CST retreated from security response – Stole a police van that had responded to the CST – Continued on to hit Cama Hospital and a theater as a “drive-by” as police pursued • DIVERSION? – Created panic and confusion while teams move into the hotels and the Jewish center \"All of a sudden, there was automatic gunfire. The whole place fell apart. It was tremendously loud. My husband and I were hit, as were lots of people. Everybody was down on the ground. The gunfire stopped for a few seconds then started again. We had to wait – it seemed like an age – for police to arrive.\" – Café Leopold survivor
6. Slide 6: Overseas Security Advisory Council Tactics – Seize and Hold • Attackers came through back entrances and shot indiscriminately – AK47s, grenades, reports of presence of RDX • Rounded up hostages to take to defensible locations – Some reports indicate that hostages were quickly executed • Room-to-room battles with security forces • Police: Attackers very familiar with layout – May have checked into rooms prior to get lay of land – May have pre-positioned supplies and weapons in rented rooms Image of attacker from CST
7. Slide 7: Overseas Security Advisory Council Tactics - Analysis • This style of frontal attack and assault designed for maximum casualties seen before – Serena Hotel attack in Kabul (large picture) – Virginia Tech attack (far left) – Indian Parliament attack Dec. 2001 • Soft targeting not new • Innovative amphibious infiltration
8. Slide 8: Overseas Security Advisory Council Targets – Anti-Western? • Five-star hotels that cater to international businesses (Taj, Oberoi/Trident) • Popular restaurant for backpackers and Western travelers (Café Leopold) • Jewish community compound • Still, at least 138 of deaths were Indian – CST mostly Indian UK AND US PASSPORT HOLDERS REPORTEDLY TARGETED, BUT SOME REPORTS CONTRADICT
9. Slide 9: Overseas Security Advisory Council Ajmal Amir Kasab • Only attacker to be captured • Trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba according to press reports – Camps located in Mansera and Muzzarafabad in Pakistani administered Kashmir • One year focusing on small arms tactics, marine assault, close quarter fighting Team of 10 given false identifications • Reconnaissance done earlier in the year • Fellow team members spoke Punjabi – Likely Pakistani origin as well • Booked a room and stocked with supplied days in advance with a Mauritius ID – Unclear if he did this and then went to back to Pakistan
10. Slide 10: Overseas Security Advisory Council Lashkar-e-Tayyiba • Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (linked to al-Qa’ida and Pakistani terror groups) has history of offering training, money, supplies, etc. for front groups • Suspected of conducting Mumbai subway bombings on July 11, 2006 • Implicated in armed assault on Indian parliament Dec. 13, 2001 – Similar small arms assault LeT recruiting poster
11. Slide 11: Overseas Security Advisory Council Lashkar-e-Tayyiba: Motives • Original claims by a group called Deccan Mujahideen – Claimed to be based in Hyderabad, India – Reportedly gunmen spoke with Indian TV via captured cell phone claiming to be Indian national(s) acting in defense of Indian Muslims – Hindi-language email claiming attack had similar aims – Previously unknown
12. Slide 12: Overseas Security Advisory Council Lashkar-e-Tayyiba: Motives • Terror attacks in India typically aim to incite Hindu violence against Indian Muslims • Aim for a repeat of Gujarat riots of 2002, which swelled Islamic militant ranks with angry recruits • While Westerners were targeted, most of those dead were locals Hindu rioter in Gujarat, 2002
13. Slide 13: Overseas Security Advisory Council Government Response • Police blocked all roads and prevented travelers from leaving airports • Surrounded the Taj Hotel, the Oberoi/Trident, and the Nariman house • Army brought in to clear the hotels/houses room-by-room, floor-by-floor • Cautious approach taken due to fear of injuring hostages, many people hiding in rooms. • Security elevated nationwide, including at tourist sites, transportation hubs, beaches, etc. • U.S. Government: “Americans should defer travel to Mumbai for at least 48-72 hours”
14. Slide 14: Overseas Security Advisory Council Private Sector Response • U.S. Hotel Response – Locked down properties in Mumbai – Physically blocked vehicle entrances in order to intercept all taxis, delivery trucks, and public vehicles – Security managers had employees shelter in place and inspected properties for possible latent threats – Most U.S. hotels have put their assets throughout India on high security alert and implemented similar security postures as in Mumbai • Other U.S. private sector response – Followed similar security plans – Most have shut down facilities in Mumbai until the situation stabilizes – Some constituents with large expatriate populations implemented mandatory check-in times for employees to call headquarters – At least one OSAC constituent ordered employees to evacuate Mumbai and move into residential areas outside the city
15. Slide 15: Overseas Security Advisory Council Recent Major Terror Attacks in India • March 13, 2003 - A bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai killed 11 people; Mumbai commuter train bomb killed 11 • Aug. 25, 2003 - Mumbai car bomb killed 60 • Oct. 29, 2005 - Three New Delhi market blasts killed 66 • March 7, 2006 - Three blasts in Varanasi killed 15 • July 11, 2006 - 180+ people killed after seven bombs exploded in railway stations and trains in Mumbai • Sept. 8, 2006 - 32 people killed in serial blasts in Malegaon • Feb. 19, 2007 - 66 train passengers killed after two bombs exploded on a route between India and Pakistan • May 18, 2007 - 11 worshippers at a mosque killed by a bomb explosion in Hyderabad • Aug. 25, 2007 - Three serial blasts at a road-side stand and amusement park killed 40 in Hyderabad. • May 13, 2008 - Seven bombs in Jaipur, outside of Hindu temples and markets killed 63 • July 25, 2008 - One killed and 15 wounded after eight small bombs exploded in Bangalore • July 26, 2008 - 45 people killed and more than 150 wounded after 16 small IEDs exploded in Ahmedabad. • Sept. 13, 2008 - Five bombs in New Delhi killed 18
16. Slide 16: Overseas Security Advisory Council All India OSAC Country Council Meeting • 13th Annual General Meeting of the India Country Council • December 8, 2008 in New Delhi • Log-on to www.osac.gov for more information on time and place and to register Topics to be discussed include: • International terror trends • Security situation update • Document fraud trends • Corporate security
One of the first to offer help online :
http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/2008/11/can-we-help.html
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Coverage
The blogging community initially took time to cover then exploded.
India has told Pakistan that terrorist attacks like those in Mumbai and at the Indian embassy in Kabul were making improvements in bilateral relations "impossible".
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee called up visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi to ask Islamabad to honour its “commitment not to permit the use of its territory” for anti-India attacks.
The Pakistan foreign minister was in the middle of a press conference when he got the phone call from Mukherjee.
A press statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs said that Mukherjee had asked Qureshi “to convey the hope that the government of Pakistan will take immediate action with regard to the terrorist attacks on Mumbai”.
Claims planning outside Pak
Pak claims Mumbai attack planned outside: Report
28 Jan 2009, 2229 hrs IST, PTI
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's probe into the Mumbai terror attacks has established that the unprecedented strikes were planned outside its country,
according to a media report.
An initial probe conducted by a three-member team set up by the Interior ministry has concluded that the 26/11 attacks were planned outside Pakistan, Dawn News channel quoted sources as saying.
The team also stated in its report to the Interior ministry that "no leads" had been found in Pakistan, the sources said. The report did not say where the attacks were planned, the channel reported.
There was no official word on the development. The interior ministry is expected to review the report on the initial probe on Thursday at a high-level meeting.
The ministry is also expected to submit a final report to the government by Saturday, Dawn News reported.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have both said in recent public comments that Pakistan will share the findings of its probe into the Mumbai attacks with India and the rest of the world.
India has blamed Pakistan-based elements, including leaders of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, for masterminding and coordinating the attacks on the financial hub that killed over 180 people on November 26 last year.
Pakistan has denied the charge and called on India to share information and conduct a joint probe to trace the perpetrators of the attacks.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24739391-2703,00.html
Five Mumbai gunmen may have escaped
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December 02, 2008
Article from: The Times
AT least five terrorist gunmen might have escaped the carnage in Mumbai and could strike again, it emerged yesterday as a video surfaced showing the capture of the gang's sole known surviving member.
The prospect of more killers added to public anger at the Indian Government's lax handling of the worst terror strike to hit the country in 15 years.
The security forces claimed that only ten militants - nine of whom were killed and one caught alive - were behind the co-ordinated attacks that claimed nearly 200 lives.
Rakesh Maria, a joint commissioner of police, said: "Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves." However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift - suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large.
"Fifteen winter jackets were found, fifteen toothbrushes," a police source said.
"That more terrorists are loose is possible." Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only gunman to be caught alive, said during police questioning that 24 men were trained in camps in Pakistan for the mission, according to a leaked account of his police interrogation.
He has since claimed, apparently, that only ten made the final trip to Mumbai, including him. Police are continuing to question the 21-year-old, who has said that he and his accomplices planned to kill 5,000 people.
Security experts say that a force of ten heavily armed men could carry out an operation on the scale of the Mumbai strike only if they received extensive training and local support. Investigators believe that at least five or six additional people were immediately involved in preparing for the attacks by organising logistics and carrying out reconnaissance.
Grainy mobile phone footage broadcast yesterday by Sky Television sheds little light on the militants' methods, but it documents the capture of the "baby-faced gunman".
It shows Kasab's last stand: a small crowd is seen shouting and beating a man lying on the ground in a Mumbai street as police officers, blowing whistles and waving long sticks, try to restore order.
Police say that Kasab arrived with the other militants in two dinghies that moored on the seafront by the Gateway of India, near the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
The militants then commandeered several cars and set off towards ten different sites across the city. Kasab and one other gunman, Abu Ismail, headed straight for Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai's main railway station, where they opened fire with AK47s, killing dozens.
It was there that he was photographed, holding his AK47 in one hand, in an image that has been seen around the world.
"They were right there," recalled Sebastian D'Souza, the man who took the photograph, pointing to the spot on the platform where he first saw the gunmen. "They never raised their guns, they were very cool. They just kept firing from their hips," he told Sky News.
"I saw lots of people shot dead, just lying there, nobody caring for them," he said. "If somebody had engaged them in some crossfire..."But no one did, so Kasab and his accomplice moved on to Cama hospital, according to Mumbai police.
There he and Abu Ismail shot dead three of India's top police officers who were rushing to the scene in a vehicle.
They continued on their shooting spree, firing shots in the air at the Metro Cinema until their vehicle suffered a puncture. Kasab and Abu Ismail then stole a golden Skoda Laura and were driving it towards Chowpatty beach, a popular evening destination for families in south Mumbai, when they were intercepted by a police team.
Abu Ismail was killed in the shootout, while Kasab was shot in his hand, according to police. It was then that he was attacked by the mob as shown in the mobile phone footage.
Initially he pretended to be dead, and was being taken to hospital when a police officer realised he was breathing, according to Indian media reports. They said that when he reached hospital he told staff there: "I don't want to die." Later, after a police interrogation, he reportedly said: "Now I don't want to live."
'The operation is over,' an extremely pleased Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor told reporters at the hotel, even as cleanup operations were underway.
http://newshopper.sulekha.com/topic/...ror-drama.html
Probes
The probe so far has pointed to four LeT operatives. The “masterminds” are identified as Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, who was seized by Pakistani police after a raid on a LeT camp in Kashmir, and Yusuf Muzammil, whose current whereabouts are unknown. Based on the results of police interrogations, two individuals identified as Abu Hamza and Khafa have been named as trainers who provided maritime lessons and training in the handling of explosives and weapons (Times of India, December 6; Daily Times [Lahore], December 12).
This is latgely discredited but is a sample of misleading Blog opinions that make information searches unreliable.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/mumbai-terror-attacks-mossad-angle
Mumbai Terror Attacks: The Mossad Angle
by pakalert | December 6, 2008 at 04:59 pm
They killed Hemant Karkare, chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai, to send a message that you cannot investigate the Mossad-RSS angle.[snip]
Our worst fears have come true. It is clear that Mossad is involved in the whole affair. An entire city has been attacked by Mossad and probably units of mercenaries. It is not possible for one single organization to plan and execute such a sophisticated operation. It is clear that this operation was backed by communal forces from within the Indian State. The Home Minister Shivraj Patil should resign. The RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal should be banned. Advani and others ought to be arrested. Today is a day of shame for all Indians and all Hindus. Muslims and secular Hindus have been proven right.
Hindus and Western extremist and Mossad behind Mumbai terrorist attacks PDF Print E-mail
Written by www.daily.pk
Sunday, 07 December 2008 17:30
Hindus, Western extremist and Mossad behind Mumbai terrorist attacks: Say Defence analysts
A security expert has sensationally revealed, interviewing to a news show, that, November 26's attacks on Mumbai have accomplished by Hindus, Western extremists and Mossad, Pakistan is not involved in these attacks. This show had been downloaded on a website and widely circulated in India.
Exposing on a program 'Mujhe ikhtlaf hai' ( I beg to differ) on "News One Channel" which was launched last year in November, Zaid Hamid declared that terrorists' faces were similar to Hindus, they were speaking in a language that's not in use in Pakistan.
Hamid told that the attack was accomplished under the "great plans", it was totally wrong. How America masterly fought off 9/11 incident and then easily derived the support of media. Indians repeated the same episode but they were cheated.
Hamid told attackers had fastened saffron Hindu ribbons around the head that a Muslim will never fasten. Hamid further said that in five minutes of attack, three ATS officers, who were probing the terror network of Indian security agency and Hindu right wing, were assassinated by terrorist. After the assassination of these three officers, it's clear that these investigations will not proceed any longer.
Anchor of the show Qudsiya Ansari commented that correct probing of Samjhauta Express will be affected after the death of ATS officers. Member of Pakistan Muslim League; Marvi Memon was also in the program. He strongly expressed his grief and anger on sending ISI chief to India and asked " I could have not supported the decision of Pakistan to send ISI chief in India" he further said that how can we send ISI Chief to the country to which we are waging a war and Indians speak against Pakistan in one tongue. He also spoke about separatist movements in India and assured "India is reaping what it has sown".
"India is going back in the era of religious tyranny , government is also assisting many separatist movements and separatists are involve in terror attacks on Mumbai, however it is blaming on Muslims
A Pakistani journalist Farakh Khan Pitafi addressed in this show that I have been supporting the peace and love between India and Pakistan for long time, but, the way India baselessly blamed Pakistan without any authentic proof, shows madness of India
He has written " Indian news channels has given a long coverage to Mumbai attacks but during this episode media didn't present this ATS officer as he revealed Hindu terrorism and Modi demanded to dismiss him.
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2008/12/05/breaking-the-news-in-mumbai-literally/
Almost within minutes, television screens showed harrowing scenes of pools of blood where people had died or been injured, hotels ablaze, Indian army snipers firing at distant targets, and CCTV images of the attackers,” Cornish writes.
The first reports of shooting in the streets of India’s financial capital did not actually come from the mainstream media. A BBC news technology blog suggested that the social networking site Twitter ”came of age” during the attacks because it carried messages on the shootings some time before television networks and news agencies started reporting them. Indeed, according to a Reuters report, blogs fed an information frenzy on the 60-hour gun rampage and siege, underlining the emergence of citizen journalism in news coverage.
However, the live coverage that followed on television networks, particularly Indian ones, was shrill, sensationalist and bordering on the hysterical. As the Financial Times points out, this is not new in India’s competitive television market, where some channels flash the words “Breaking News” all day and “the only thing that matters is to be ‘first’, even if first is wrong”. The blizzard of reporting inaccuracies over this incident was astonishing. In a despatch on why we should take reports from the scene of a massacre with a grain of salt, Jack Shafer catalogues the instances from Mumbai of what he calls “crap masquerading as authoritative news”.
Shame on NDTV and Barkha Dutt
28 Jan 2009
On India’s Republic Day, blogger Chyetanya Kunte published a retraction to a post he did on the irresponsible role of the journalists in the Mumbai attack. I read the original piece and while it was angry, it could hardly be termed libelous (I refrain from quoting from it for Chyetanya’s sake, but curious minds might be interested in Google’s cache of the post - scroll to the very bottom).
All over the blogosphere, angry posts were written after the Mumbai attacks–some criticizing the government; and others questioning the media’s role. In tone and content, they did not differ from Chyetanya’s piece. It is clear that NDTV is trying to make an example of Chyetenya as a warning against future criticism. That is unacceptable.
What’s appalling is the very bodies who owe their survival to free speech, the very organizations that used free speech to report on the Mumbai attacks, and defended their content as necessary for information dissemination are now against a blogger’s right to free speech.
Let’s take the following scenario - NDTV and Ms. Barkha Dutt do a piece on someone. Let’s call her A. They tear A to shreds for some reason. Talk about how A didn’t live up to the expectations of her job. Let’s say the piece is a liberal mix of opinion and fact - based on my limited visibility to Ms. Dutt, that’s her modus operandi anyway (which she’s entitled to).
Now, let’s say A sues NDTV and Barkha Dutt. What do you presume would happen? Using their huge platform as a national news channel and their vast legal resources, they would fight it. There would be stories on freedom of the press and freedom of speech. There would be righteous stomping around on how the press in India is always maligned blah, blah, blah. Needless to say, other channels of mainstream media and, of course, bloggers would join NDTV in defending its right of free speech.
In fact, all of this happened in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks where the press in India hoisted a vigorous defense of itself. Excellent, I say - defend yourselves. Excellent - use the right to free speech and stand by your right to report events as they happen.
Now, let’s turn to what they are doing to poor Chyetanya Kunte1. According to NDTV and Barkha Dutt, he is not entitled to freedom of speech. He’s only a piddly little blogger, so he’s not entitled to the freedom of the press caveat either. Who is he? A poor sod who’s an individual blogger? Well then, throw the entire weight of the NDTV legal staff at him and coerce him into a retraction2.
This is pathetic. This reeks of a double standard so despicable it probably violates some journalistic ethic. There, I said it. Sue me!!
1. I have not spoken to Chyetanya Kunte about this. I do not know him. I read his blog on occasion and happened on his retraction [↩]
2. I have no idea if he was “coerced”, but the verbiage on the retractions is clearly a response to a legal claim - again, I do NOT want to make his life more difficult [↩]
Apologies
Weblog Archive
Unconditional Withdrawal of my post "Shoddy Journalism" dated November 27th 2008
Mon, 26 Jan 2009 at 00:00 • Chyetanya Kunte
1. I, Chyetanya Kunte, hereby tender an unconditional apology to Ms. Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor, English News, NDTV Limited and to NDTV Limited, for the defamatory statements I made regarding Ms. Barkha Dutt and NDTV Limited, in my post titled "Shoddy Journalism," dated November 27th 2008, on my weblog at www.ckunte.com.
2. I have come to the conclusion that my post contained untrue and defamatory statements and that I have expressed myself in a disproportional manner. As a result, I have agreed with Ms. Barkha Dutt and NDTV to publish this statement as a means of settlement. I did not have the right nor the factual evidence to accuse Ms. Dutt and NDTV of the acts that I alleged in my weblog.
3. Consequently, I hereby repudiate and withdraw my post dated November 27, 2008 titled "Shoddy Journalism" and, more specifically, the following allegations / statements made in the post titled "Shoddy Journalism" namely:
* a lack of ethics, responsibility and professionalism by Ms. Dutt and NDTV Limited;
* that Ms. Dutt and NDTV's reporting at the scene of the Mumbai attacks during November 2008, resulted in jeopardizing the safety and lives of civilians and / or security personnel caught up in and / or involved in defending against the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008;
* that Ms. Dutt was responsible for the death of Indian Servicemen during the Kargil Conflict.
4. In an effort to remedy the damage that my aforementioned weblog post has caused to the reputations of Ms. Dutt and NDTV, I have undertaken to send this apology and withdrawal statement to all the websites that reproduced my post.
5. I hereby undertake not to repeat the said statements or similar statements against Ms. Dutt or NDTV Limited in the future.
[26.01.09]
Chyetanya Kunte
Every time there is a bombing or an earthquake or a tsunami, there are reports — many of which appear on television and other ‘traditional’ media outlets — that turn out to be completely wrong.”
Ingram argued that this does not necessarily make the report invalid. He said “chaotic situations result in poor information flow — even to the ‘professional’ journalists”. He said first-hand and second-hand reports on Twitter are no worse.
“Should anyone take them as gospel, or the final version of the events? No. Obviously, at some point someone has to check the facts, confirm reports, analyse the outcome, and so on. News reporting and journalism are much more of a process than they are a discrete thing. But as I have tried to argue before, Twitter reports are a valuable ‘first draft of history,’ and that is a pretty good definition of the news.”
Gauravonomics continues to track instances of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terror attackand trying to make sense of what happened in a work-in-progress case study on the role of social media in the Mumbai terror attack. He's also compiling reactions on Indian news media’s coverage of the terror attack.
See interviews on the role of citizen journalism in the terror attack with Los Angeles Times, CBS News, BBC, DNA, LiveMint, Associated Press, Journalism.co.uk and Star Telegram.
Rail Station CCTV
Chidambaram admits security, intelligence failure
Mumbai, PTI/IANS:
"I apologise to the people of Mumbai (for what happened)," the minister said. ''We will strain every nerve to improve the security system of our country. We must take on the challenge and overcome it."
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today admitted to the intelligence and security lapses and assured that steps would be taken to ensure that there is an improvement in measures to tackle terrorism.
King is a Times staff writer :
laura.king@latimes.com
Special correspondent Anjum Herald Gill in Muridke contributed to this report.
---------------------------------
Glenn R. Simpson contributed to this article.
Write to Susan Schmidt at susan.schmidt@wsj.com and Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com
---------------------------------
Zahid Hussain and Jay Solomon contributed to this article.
Write to Geeta Anand at geeta.anand@wsj.com, Matthew Rosenberg at matthew.rosenberg@wsj.com and Susan Schmidt at susan.schmidt@wsj.com
----------------------------------
Mumbai Terrorist Attacks Photos
Boston.com: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html
Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/vinu/"
GroundReport: http://www.groundreport.com/article_list.php?sortBy=latest&region=100
NDTV: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/gallerydetail.aspx?imgid=3042&img=1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00442/Mumbai_15_442635a.jpg
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00440/gunman_1_440711h.jpg
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/12/04/world/gunman190.jpg
From Wikipedia
Victims
Main article: List of victims of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks
Nationality Deaths Injured
Flag of India Indian 140 257
Flag of the United States American 4[78] 2[79]
Flag of Australia Australian 4[80][81][82] 2[83]
Flag of Canada Canadian 3 2
Flag of Germany German 3[84] 3
Flag of the United StatesFlag of Israel American-Israeli 2[85] -
Flag of Israel Israeli 2[86][87][88] -
Flag of France French 2[89] -
Flag of Italy Italian 2 -
Flag of CyprusFlag of the United Kingdom Cypriot-British 1 -
Flag of the Netherlands Dutch 1[90] -
Flag of Japan Japanese 1 1
Flag of Jordan Jordanian 1 1
Flag of Malaysia Malaysian 1[91]
Flag of Mauritius Mauritian 1[92][93] -
Flag of Mexico Mexican 1[94] -
Flag of Singapore Singaporean 1[95] -
Flag of Thailand Thai 1[96] -
Flag of the United Kingdom British - 7
Flag of Oman Omani - 2[84]
Flag of Spain Spanish - 2[97][84][98]
Flag of Austria Austrian - 1[99]
Flag of the People's Republic of China Chinese - 1[84]
Flag of the Philippines Filipino - 1[100]
Flag of Finland Finnish - 1[84]
Flag of Norway Norwegian - 1[101]
At least 171 people had been killed[102] in the attacks and 294 wounded.[102] This includes nearly 40 Muslims and nationals from 10 countries. [103] Among the dead were 123 Indian civilians, 17 policemen and 31 foreigners. The breakdown of the foreigners was as follows: four Americans, four Australians, three Canadians, three Germans, two Israeli-Americans, two Israelis, two French, two Italians, one British-Cypriot, one Dutch, one Japanese, one Jordanian, one Malaysian, one Mauritian, one Mexican, one Singaporean and one Thai.[16][104][105][106][107][108][109][110]
In addition, nine terrorists were killed and one was captured.[111]
27 other foreigners of different nationalities were injured in the terror strikes and were admitted to the Bombay Hospital. Hospital sources said the injured foreigners were from Australia, USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Canada, Spain, Norway, Finland, Oman, China, Japan, the Philippines and Jordan.[109]
Andreas Liveras, a British yachting tycoon (of dual Greek Cypriot and British citizenship), was among those confirmed killed.[112] German TV producer Ralph Burkei, and French lingerie tycoon, Loumia Hiridjee and her husband, were also among the dead.[113][114] Husband and wife, Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg, both of whom were hostages in Nariman House, also died during the attack.[115]
According to Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, 14 policemen and three NSG commandos were killed, including the following officers:[116][107]
* Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare,[117] who headed the team investigating the politically sensitive 2006 Malegaon blasts. Karkare had also been receiving death threats recently,[118] including a threat to bomb his residence,[119] but it is unclear if these were related to his death.
* Additional Commissioner of Police: Ashok Kamte[117]
* Encounter specialist: Vijay Salaskar[117]
* Senior inspector Shashank Shinde,[117] who had recently been involved in investigating many of India's recent bombings.
* NSG Commando, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan
* NSG Commando Hawaldar Chandar[120]
* NSG Commando Gajendra Singh
Three railway officials of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus had also been killed in the terror strikes.[121]
The Government of Maharashtra announced Rs. 5 lakh (about 10,000 USD) compensation to the kin of those killed in the terror attacks and Rs. 50,000 (about 1,000 USD) to the seriously injured.[122]
Last Mumbai attacks injured prepare to go home
AFP - Jan 29
MUMBAI (AFP) — Just over two months after the deadly Mumbai attacks, only three people are left in hospital. Poonam Singh is one of them and she is looking forward to going home.
"It's as if I've been reborn," she said from her bed at the city's Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital. "A lot of other people have not been able to go home."
The 35-year-old housewife still cannot walk unaided and is on strong painkillers but she could get her wish by the end of the week, said Shashi J. Powar, the doctor who heads the hospital's disaster management unit and control room.
The only thing needed now is a donation to buy her a walking frame, he added.
Poonam and her family have been through a lot since November 26, when 10 heavily-armed militants began a 60-hour killing spree that left 165 people dead and more than 300 injured.
She was at Mumbai's main railway station with her father, brother and two of her four children that night. They were waiting for a train to take them back to her village in Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, for an uncle's funeral.
Instead, she was brought bleeding and unconscious to the "J.J." for life-saving treatment after bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle ripped through her lower right leg and shoulder.
Like many of the 111 people taken to the J.J after the attacks, Poonam's family have been ever-present at her bedside during her recovery -- but at a price.
Her six-year-old son, Sachin, was also injured. When she came round, she had no idea whether he was dead or alive. To her relief, doctors eventually told her he was being treated elsewhere in the dusty, state-run hospital.
Now recovered from a bullet wound to his right thigh, Sachin is lying asleep on a thin mattress next to his mother on Ward Six.
Her husband Santosh, a housing supervisor, has lost two months' wages as he had to take care of their children.
Their youngest son, aged 18 months and still unnamed, doesn't recognise his mother as she has lost weight and become frailer.
"That causes me a lot of anguish, a lot of pain," she said. "One incident has changed the whole family."
In casualty downstairs, a bloody and gruesome scene during the attacks, normal service has resumed: patients hobble in; nurses tend to a man with a head wound; a porter pushes a trolley with a dead body under white muslin.
In an upstairs ward, past sleeping stray dogs, cats prowling for food, waiting relatives stretched out in leaky corridors and cross-legged men doing crossword puzzles, Sulochana Lokhande is also eager to leave.
She was also at the station and had her left forearm smashed by bullets. Her 60-year-old husband, Chandrakant, was also injured but has since been released.
Rods and pins protrude from Sulochana's immobile limb. Her inner arm is scarred crimson red and mottled like congealed cooking fat.
"When can I go home?" the 50-year-old housewife asks Powar from under a multi-coloured rug on her iron-framed bed.
Powar can't give her an exact date but assures her it won't be long.
"Once the external fixations are taken out," he replies.
Powar, who was on duty for 48 hours straight during the attacks, is concerned about all his patients' aftercare, especially those from remote, rural areas. That's why the two women have been in hospital so long.
"If you had gone to the hospital in your village, they would have chopped off your arm," he tells her.
Eventually, Sulochana will head back to Afzalpur, in Karnataka state, with money from the hospital for her train ticket and a seat reservation.
She still doesn't know who shot her or why. Neither does Poonam but that's not her main concern.
"I've got a new life. That's all I can say," she says, smiling.
See Topic Ripple Effects
Trauma by exposure
Generally hostages are held for two reasons
Social demands or Money demands.
In this case, although the rhetoric was always about the mistreatment of the Muslims but there was no ready list of demands. If this was an indigenous group, then they would know exactly what they wanted out of this! Intriguingly, when the killer was asked about his demands.. he fumbled... did not answer.... and then turned to his friend and asked "Kee Demanda haigiyan hai jee?" ("What are our demands." in Punjabi - again despite the fact that he kept on asserting that he was from Hyderabad, AP). Shahadullah Khan from Oberoi Hotel . Recording 2: Imran Babar from Nariman House)
Recording 1:
http://www.drishtikone.com/?q=blog/terrorists-talk-phone-tv-station
Recording 2
http://drishtikone.com/?q=blog/terrorist-talks-nariman-house-another-punjabi-mumbai
UK and USA nationals apparently singled out for hostage taking.
Note that Chabad House was a Jewish residence.
Why were certain nationals targeted?
---------------------------------------
Jeremy R. Hammond
Foreign Policy Journal
Friday, Dec 05, 2008
Only one of the terrorists in the Mumbai attacks was captured alive, Azam Amir Kasab, a resident of the territory of Punjab in Pakistan. According to reports, he has told his interrogators a great deal about how the attacks went down.
Kasab confessed to being a member of LeT. He and his fellow terrorists were instructed to target foreigners, particularly Americans, British, and Israelis.
Two American Intelligence officer killed in Mumbai Attack. French Nuclear Physicist rescued
by Sanjay Jha | November 26, 2008
--------------------------------------
Manan KumarFirst Published : 13 Dec 2008 04:12:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 13 Dec 2008 08:03:28 AM ISTNEW DELHI: The unequivocal and unprecedented support that has come from the US government against Pakistan based terrorists outfits in the aftermath of Mumbai terror attack is not incidental.
Reliable sources in government told Express that two senior espionage officials from the US were among the eight Americans killed in the Mumbai terror attacks.
These two senior officials, a man and a woman, were in a meting at Taj hotel when it was raided by heavily armed terrorists of the Pakistan-based Lashkar- e-Taiba. Holed up in a hotel room, both of them fell to terrorists’ bullets late in the night on November 27. The news, sources said, even rankled the White House.
The Taj hotel was attacked by four heavily-armed LeT terrorists at around 9.30 pm on November 26 was finally declared safe after more than 50 hours gun battle NSG commandos and Navy’s Marcos on November 28. Investigations later revealed that Taj was attacked by highly trained LeT terrorists viz. Hafeez Arshad alias Bada Abdul Rehman from Multan, Javed alias Abu Ali from Okara, Shoaib alias Soheb from Sialkot and Nazeer alias Abu Umer from Faizalabad.
Unfortunately, the two espionage officials, in their middle age, had come to Taj to evaluate the threat perception in case a terrorist attack was launched from the nearby sea. They were at Taj after being alerted by the CIA, the espionage agency of the US about a terrorist attack on the hotel.
Unsure if updated
See Wikipedia
See each topic
(Lists not fully updated)
List of hostages rescued from Oberoi Trident:
NAME NATIONALITY
WATT WILSON UK
ARNOLD SBARRETTI ITALIAN
ANWAR ATTARWALA INDIAN
MOHAMMAD ATTARWALA INDIAN
BEN ALI KUWAIT
WADAHATI ALMESHAR KUWAIT
TAIBA ALMESHAR KUWAIT
DOWSON OLIVER FRANCIS UK
YUSUF AMIR YUSUF IRAQ
YOGESH SHAH USA
NANKI VELL GAY CANADA
MRS. BROY JENNIFER DEAN CANADA
NI KADEK EDI DARMAYANTI BALI
IQST AYO COTO SRE BALI
ANAK AGANG KOMANG BALI
SUDIPTO SARKAR INDIA
JOYDEEP SENGUPTA INDIA
EMANUEL LATTARZI ITALY
CHANAY YAEMIN THAILAND
WALSH NANCY ELIEEN USA
YUANG YONG ZHONG CHINA
NODA PETSU JAPAN
LAILA AJM AL SHAHEB KUWAIT
(List not fully updated)
Mumbai is bidding a tearful farewell to Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare while Bangalore gets ready for the cremation of National Security Guard commando Major Sadeep Unnikrishnan.
Karkare was killed along with two other top policemen, Additional Commissioner of police Ashok Kamte and police inspector Vijay Salaskar at Cama Hospital near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal when they came under fire from terrorists on Wednesday nigh
When one of the commando of his team was injured, Major Unnikrishnan went in to evacuate him and spotted one of the terrorists
Deaths
179 people have died in the attacks, including 22 foreigners and six Americans.
Encounter specialist cop Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte were killed during the siege. Hemant Karkare, head of the Indian anti-terrorist squad, also died.20
A Virginia man, Alan Scherr, and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi died during the Hotel Oberoi attack while attending a conference with fellow members of the Synchronicity Foundation. New York Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg were killed in the Nariman House attack after their two-year-old son had escaped with their Indian nanny.
Listing from BR
With the exception of the bomb blast at Vile Parle, all the other incidents took place in downtown South Mumbai.
* Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point
* Taj Mahal Palace & Tower near the Gateway of India
* Leopold Cafe, a popular tourist restaurant in Colaba
* Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station
* Lane behind the Times of India building.
* Near St. Xavier's College
* Cama and Albless Hospital
* Nariman House (Chabad House) Jewish outreach center
* Metro Cinema
* Mazagaon docks in Mumbai's port area;
* Vile Parle near the airport
Indian security forces, faced with massive hostage situations developing all over the city, opted to take immediate tactical action upon mobilization. Due to the large number of civilian hostages at risk and unknown number of terrorists, India’s National Security Guard (NSG) began room-to-room searches of the Taj and Oberei-Trident hotels. The NSG imposed curfews on the surrounding area.[viii] The hotels appeared to have been targeted because they were frequented by Westerners and the Indian elite. Many witnesses corroborated rumors that the gunmen had asked hostages for identification, looking specifically for American and British nationals.
Many of the casualties in the attacks are reported to have occurred at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, where at least two gunmen started shooting at passengers waiting for long-distance trains.
The gunmen, armed with rifles, stormed into the crowded terminal on Wednesday evening firing indiscriminately and throwing grenades.
Ten people were reported killed and about 30 injured in these attacks.
The station, formerly Victoria Terminus, is one of the busiest railway stations in the country, handling thousands of passengers each day.
It took 10 years to build, starting in 1878, and is famous for its Victorian gothic architecture. It was named a Unesco world heritage site in 2004.
Gunmen stormed the Cafe Leopold restaurant late on Wednesday and opened fire on diners.
The wife of one injured Briton said: "It was mayhem. There were so many casualties. It was carnage."
Eyewitnesses suggest that the attackers looked very young, "like boys".
Cafe Leopold is an old Mumbai institution, popular with foreign tourists and close to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.
The cafe opened in 1871 and is popular with the city's artistic crowd.
Gunmen attacked the Cama and Albless Hospital on Wednesday, shooting indiscriminately.
One report from the hospital said four militants hijacked a nearby police van and opened fire from inside it, before two were killed and the other two captured by the authorities.
Cama and Albless is a charitable hospital for women and children that was built in the late 1880s by a wealthy businessman.
Nariman House was a Jewish center in Mumbai that was attacked.
The New York Times reported that terrorists held several hostages at the Mumbai Chabad House (also known as Nariman House) in Colaba, owned by Chabad Lubavitch.[61] It was reported in the early morning of 29 November that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with other hostages inside the house
--------------------------------
Gunmen seized control of the Nariman House business and residential complex on Wednesday. Police surrounded the complex, which houses the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch outreach centre and sent in commandos on Friday.
They dropped smoke bombs to create confusion, and then several troops abseiled down ropes from a helicopter to secure the roof.
Several hours later police confirmed six people had been killed inside, including a rabbi and his wife. The couple's child had already been evacuated from the building. Two kidnappers were also killed.
The centre acts as a centre for prayer and study, attracting many Jewish and Israeli visitors every year.
The gunmen had stormed the Taj Mahal as people sat down for dinner on Wednesday evening, opening fire indiscriminately.
Hundreds of people hid for hours as gunmen fought special commandos.
A number of blazes broke out inside the hotel and flames billowed from the windows, the latest about 0730 local time on Saturday, the culmination of an hour of heavy gunfire and loud explosions, signalling the end of the operation.
By Sumit Sharma
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace and Tower will partially reopen on Dec. 21 after closing for repairs following last month’s attacks by terrorists at the century-old hotel and a dozen other sites in India’s financial capital.
The hotel was the scene of attacks by terrorists carrying guns, grenades and explosives for almost 60 hours, along with the Oberoi-Trident hotel complex, the city’s main railway station, and a Jewish centre, in which 164 people lost their lives. The attacks that began on the night of Nov. 26, ended on Nov. 29.
“We dedicate our reopening to the city of Mumbai as affirmation of the values of courage, resilience and dignity,” Raymond Bickson, managing director of Indian Hotels Co., which runs the luxury hotel, said in a statement e-mailed from Mumbai.
Rooms in the tower wing of the hotel will again be open to guests, according to the statement. The heritage wing of the 565- room Taj suffered more extensive damage, Indian Hotels said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange last week.
The Trident, located about two miles west of the Taj, also plans to reopen on the same day.
Indian commandos say the Oberoi-Trident is now under their control. Nearly 100 people were brought out safely on Friday morning by the security forces but 24 bodies were found shortly afterwards in the building.
Two militants, who had thrown hand grenades and exchanged gunfire, were killed, India's National Security Guard director-general said.
The hotel was seized on Wednesday by heavily armed gunmen who rounded up diners who appeared to be tourists. At least 380 people were in the hotel at the time.
Indian intelligence had obtained its own warnings of an attack. One indication was a request from a LeT operative to obtain international SIM cards for an upcoming operation. There was also information that a LeT team was training at a camp near Karachi, and that part of their training was to prepare for launching attacks from the sea. The team was trained under Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, also known as “Chacha”. Also among the information received was that the Taj Mahal hotel was pinpointed as a major target.
As a result, security at the hotel was increased, but was lessened again just a week prior to the attacks because of complaints from the hotel’s clients. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, which owns the hotel, acknowledged that warnings of a possible attack had been received.
Leaked Report Points to Larger Pakistani Role in Mumbai Attacks
Article Tools Sponsored By
By SALMAN MASOOD
Published: February 10, 2009
The leaked report earlier this week said the attacks were planned in a European country and Dubai over the Internet, using Bangladesh for logistical support. Pakistan also called for more information from India — a demand that provoked an angry reaction. “What is required of Pakistan is that it should not delay, deflect or confuse, but act,” India’s junior foreign minister, Anand Sharma, said.
two other men being held were Khan and Riaz, withholding their full names so as not to compromise the investigation.
One of those arrested, identified as Javed Iqbal, was lured back to Pakistan from the Spanish city of Barcelona, Malik said.
LINKS TO EUROPE AND U.S.
Investigators had also discovered some funds transferred from Italy and Spain were used to finance the attack, and Austrian telephone sim cards were used. Malik spoke too of a link, possibly an Internet domain, to Houston in the United States.
The Mumbai attack relied on local al-Qaeda-linked militants (Indian Mujahideen) such as Abdus Subhan Qureshi (Tauqir). He had cased the Jewish community center that was attacked and where several people were killed. His information was that it was being used by Israeli intelligence - Mossad.
Information on such key targets was passed on to the LET, and its well-trained commandos then carried out their meticulously planned operation in which only 10 men held Mumbai hostage for 72 hours.
Abdus Subhan had planned other attacks on Indian strategic targets immediately after the Mumbai attack, but Kasab's arrest prevented this through his revelations of his LET background.
Washington appears to accept that the Mumbai attack was not carried out at the behest of Islamabad or the Pakistan army, or even by the ISI's high command. But there is now proof of the involvement of the LET and of some junior ISI officials. It is on this point that the US will apply pressure on Islamabad: it must curtail such militants.
Mumbai attacks were planned for September'
Vicky Nanjappa and Krishnakumar P in Mumbai
December 07, 2008 21:33 IST
Fahim Ansari is proving to be a vital link to the Mumbai terror attack and his interrogation has revealed that Mumbai was originally supposed to be struck in September 2008. Ansari who confirms that the entire Mumbai terror attack was planned and plotted by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba says that the operation was originally planned for September, but had to be postponed to November following his arrest.
Investigators and Intelligence Bureau officials said several details regarding the Mumbai terror attack had come to light following the arrest of Fahim Ansari, one of the accused in the attack on a Central Reserve Police Force camp at Rampur. IB officials said that the LeT was forced to postpone the Mumbai operation following the arrest of Ansari as they realized that the man had let out information regarding the major attack on the financial capital.
Ansari said during his interrogation that the Mumbai attack was planned along with the CRPF Rampur attack. While one team was identified for the attack at Rampur, another team had trained along with them rigorously to carry out the attack on Mumbai. Ansari who was first interrogated by the Uttar Pradesh police in February had revealed that the LeT had planned an attack in Mumbai.
Ansari had made a specific mention about the Taj, Oberoi, and also the Bombay Stock Exchange at that time. He had said that the attack was planned for September. The IB says that the idea of hitting the Bombay Stock Exchange was dropped at the last minute as the LeT decided that it would be a night operation and there was no use in striking at the BSE by night. The LeT decided to penetrate into Mumbai in the night as they knew that security would be lax at that time.
Each of these targets was well chosen in terms of their “performance” value -- the elite in Mumbai and foreigners usually thronged these places and targeting them would result in grabbing national and international media attention. This was doubly ensured by singling out American and British citizens and thus drawing the attention of the BBC and CNN, which provided round the clock coverage for millions of viewers worldwide. The Mumbai attacks also dominated the virtual world of the web, jamming popular blogs like Twitter.
"The Mumbai attacks 'closely followed' the framework of a foiled 1993 New York plot, including 'high-profile soft targets' such as hotels, the use of watercraft to gain access to sites and the choice of weaponry, according to a Dec. 3 report from Austin, Texas-based Stratfor, an intelligence company."
Bloomberg
December 5, 2008
It is apparent that the terrorists visited Mumbai and the targets to become familiar.
Still speculation they had assistance at some of the targets
Security experts say that a force of ten heavily armed men could carry out an operation on the scale of the Mumbai strike only if they received extensive training and local support.
Last week, ten terrorists (apparently with the help of some pre-positioned accomplices) launched a wave of deadly attacks at the heart of Mumbai, India aiming to kill thousands and destroy landmarks.
http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2008/051208More.htm
While the evidence strongly points to LeT and a network of associates affiliated with the group or with each other, that web also includes the CIA and MI6. One early report said that some of the Mumbai terrorists were, like Rashid Rauf, British nationals. This was picked up by numerous press accounts around the globe, but the Indian government official this information was attributed to denied ever having said such a thing.
Theories that this was a false flag operation have already begun to spread around the internet, with varying culprits and motives. Whatever the truth is, what is clear from the facts one is able to piece together from media accounts is that there is more to the Mumbai attacks than meets the eye.
Apparently a Bangladesh national bought SIM cards for use
Feb19 admission
Bangladesh admits use of its soil for Mumbai attack
February 19th, 2009 - 1:07 pm ICT by ANI - Send to a friend:
Lahore, Feb.19 (ANI): Bangladesh, for the first time, has officially admitted that terrorist outfits operating from its soil may also have been involved in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
The terrorist attacks that have been carried out within the region in the recent months, even in Mumbai, there is a cross-border linkage among all the terrorists,The Daily Times quoted Bangladeshs Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hassan Memoud, as saying.
Memoud also accepted that the banned militant outfit, Harkatul Jihadul Islami, has its base in Bangladesh, and continues to function from there.
He also claimed that the militants are being trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan before transported to Bangladesh for carrying out such attacks.
Terrorists from outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Harkatul Jihad were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan before coming to Bangladesh, Memoud said. (ANI)
Once the attacker found out these details, he then called someone believed to be Muzammil, who was also identified by the surviving gunman and who was in Lahore, according to phone records recovered by investigators.
The surviving guests said the attacker told the person on the other end of the phone the guests' details and asked whether they should be killed or not.
At one point, a guest said one of the calls seemed to be a conference call with two people on the other end.
Pakistan names
two other men being held were Khan and Riaz, withholding their full names so as not to compromise the investigation.
One of those arrested, identified as Javed Iqbal, was lured back to Pakistan from the Spanish city of Barcelona, Malik said.
Sadiq
Hammad Amin Sadiq arrested - linked by phone and evidence
Rashid Rauf
Less than a week before the attacks, a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan purportedly killed a British citizen of Pakistani descent named Rashid Rauf, who was suspected of planning to blow up commercial airliners flying from Britain to the U.S. He fled Britain in 2002 after being suspected of stabbing to death his uncle, Mohammed Saeed. He settled in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, and married a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of another militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Besides being linked to JeM, he was also suspected by some intelligence sources of having connections to the ISI. Pakistani authorities arrested him in Bahawalpur in August 2006 at the behest of British authorities, but he escaped police custody when they allowed him to enter a mosque ostensibly to say afternoon prayers. While police waited outside, Rauf walked out the back door. He may have just escaped, but there were also rumors that he was secretly taken into custody by the ISI in a plan that kept him under wraps while preventing him from being extradited to Britain.
The location of Rauf was reportedly given to U.S. officials by the Pakistani government, and may have been a move calculated to appease the U.S. over charges that elements of the ISI are still assisting militants engaged in cross-border attacks into Afghanistan. Earlier this year, terrorists bombed the Indian embassy in Kabul, and both India and the U.S. claimed that the ISI had been involved in the attack.
The airstrike that killed Rauf may also have been the result of early information obtained on the attack on Mumbai, as intelligence agencies reportedly had learned that he was involved in the planning of a major upcoming terrorist event. They may have sought to take him out before such an attack could occur.
Omar Saeed Sheikh
Wanted along with Ibrahim for the 1993 Bombay attacks is Aftab Ansari, also an Indian national. Ansari is linked to Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin. Omar Sheikh is an associate of Osama bin Laden and has been accused of masterminding the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal.
Omar Skeikh was also the paymaster of the 9/11 hijackers and wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta in Florida. According to Indian intelligence, working with the FBI a link was established between Omar Sheikh and the head of Pakistan’s ISI, Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed. Sources revealed to the media that the evidence obtained from Omar Sheikh’s cell phone indicated that it was at the behest of Mahmud Ahmed that the money was sent to finance the 9/11 hijackers. While this has widely been reported internationally, including by the Press Trust of India, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, Agence France-Presse, and UK’s The Guardian and The Times, it has not received any mention in the U.S. mainstream media.
Caught & Released
Omar Saeed Sheikh was also caught and imprisoned by India for involvement in that hijacking, and was likewise released in exchange for the hostages. Like Azhar, Omar Seikh is reported to have close links to the ISI and, according to former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, was also an agent of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, which sent him to engage in operations in the Balkans.
Indian Nationals
Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim. He’s a Pakistani terrorism financier who has collaborated in the past with LeT. Want to know some other interesting tidbits about him? Well, he has been on the run from the Indian Security Services since 1993 for his involvement in the… wait for it… the 1993 Mumbai bombings. Where, possibly uncoincidentally, he transported operatives, arms and explosives in that attack from Karachi on a ship.
One possible collaborator in the plot, the authorities say, was an Indian named Faheem Ahmed Ansari, who was arrested in February in a northern Indian state, Uttar Pradesh, along with two other suspected Lashkar members.
Ansari told the police interrogators that from fall 2007 to February 2008 he surveyed possible targets for Lashkar in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the old Victoria rail station.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/05/asia/05mumbai.php
Fresh evidence unearthed Thursday by investigators in India indicated that the Mumbai attacks were stage-managed from at least two Pakistani cities by top leaders of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Indian and American intelligence officials have already identified a Lashkar operative, who goes by the name Yusuf Muzammil, as a mastermind of the attacks. On Thursday, Indian investigators named one of the most well-known senior figures in Lashkar, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
In a shocking revelation on late Friday night, it has been reported that one of the terrorists holed up in hotel Taj Mahal was doing his internship there as Trainee Chef for past 10 months.This disclosure has made it clear that there were more terrorists in the hotel than suspected. This revelation has also made it clear that the planning of this attack was going on for at least a year and the terrorists had everything in place to carry off this attac
MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK: TIMELINE
Terrorists launched a massive attack on India's financial capital on Wednesday (November 26), and put major hotels under seige. A chronology of events in IST since then, with latest being the first:
November 29
9.00 pm: 22 bodies were recovered in Taj Hotel by NSG commandos, NSG chief J K Dutt said, adding body of fourth terrorist also recovered.
8.20 pm: Captured terrorist Amin Kasab killed Karkare, Salaskar and Kamte, Mumbai police said.
3.45 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh addresses media, says 18 foreigners and 16 security personnel, including two NSG men, killed in attacks.
3.00 pm: Disaster Management Cell of Mumbai Municipal Corporation said that at least 195 people, including 10 foreign nationals, killed and 295 injured so far in Mumbai terror attacks.
2.20 pm: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls all-party meeting on Sunday to discuss situation arising out of Mumbai terror attacks.
2.10 pm: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil revealed that the terrorists had made calls from the Taj Hotel to Pakistan and received instructions from there. He also insisted that a group of terrorists arrived in Mumbai on November 26, on the day of the terror attacks.
1.40 pm: Management of Taj Hotel denies involvement of their staff in terrorist attack
10.57 am: Death toll reaches 195
8.49 am: Director General of National Security Guards, J K Dutt, briefs media, tells three terrorists killed in the latest operation at Taj Hotel. Operation is still on, he insists, adding the commandos are checking all the rooms to ensure rescue of guests trapped inside the hotel.
8.42 am: Four terrorists killed at Taj Hotel; number of other dead and injured there still to be ascertained, says Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor.
8.32 am: The 59-hour siege of old Taj Hotel ends. Last terrorist killed.
8.13 am: Around 200 NSG personnel engaged in eliminating "three to four" terrorists in old Taj Hotel building, say military sources.
7.53 am: Heavy exchange of fire at Taj Hotel.
6.56 am: Media personnel stationed outside Taj hotel asked to step back as skirmish between terrorists and security forces reaches last stage.
6.04 am: Five large explosions heard from inside the Taj Mahal Hotel old building. Snipers take positions as security forces launch the 'final assault' against terrorists holed-up in the heritage building of Taj Hotel.
6.03 am: Explosions and intermittent firing at the heritage building of Taj Hotel.
12.01 am: NSG moves into lobby of Taj; Director General (DG) NSG J K Dutt says operation will end tonight.
November 28
9.06 pm: Director General (DG) NSG J K Dutt says “Nariman House cleared and secured, operation at Nariman House over.”
8.50 pm: Oberoi will reportedly reopen in another four days.
8.43 pm: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee talks to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi; says "outrages" like Mumbai attack will affect improvement in bilateral ties.
8.28 pm: Indian Navy chief says that the joint rescue operation is heading towards success.
8.07 pm: Search operation continuous at Taj; One more body recovered.
7.59 pm: Two loud explosion heard at Nariman House.
7.55 pm: Operation on at the third floor of Nariman House.
7.45 pm: Fresh explosions heard at Taj Hotel. Reports clame the renewal of firing as well.
7.40 pm: Two terrorists killed in Nariman House.
6.55 pm: Director General (DG) NSG J K Dutt states that second floor of Nariman House has been cleared, adding five bodies of the hostages were recovered who were killed by the terrorists. Meanwhile, NSG enters the third floor.
6.40 pm: Fresh fire breaks outside Taj Hotel room after three quick explosions.
6.30 pm: Mumbai Police Commissioner Ghafur said “The operation in Nariman House is not over, I don't know how people got the impression that operations (in Nariman House) are over. In their own interest people should not come close to the House".
6.01 pm: Firing intensifies at Taj. One more blast heard from the hotel.
6.00 pm: NSG explodes outer wall of Nariman House. NSG takes control of the fourth floor.
5.46 pm: India has reportedly turned down an offer by Israel to send its Crack Commandos to Mumbai.
5.40: Huge blast at Nariman House.
5.30 pm: Commando enters Taj Hotel with grenade launchers.
5.25: Fresh firing at Taj.
5.01 pm: Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Home Ministry, M L Kumawat, addresses media, says eight foreigners killed in terror attacks. He suspected the presence of at least six terrorists inside Taj Hotel.
5.00 pm: Two people injured in the cross-firing with terrorists at Taj Hotel. One of the injured is a foreign lady journalist of a news agency.
4.44 pm: Three massive explosions at Taj Hotel. They are said to be the heaviest of all the blasts that have rocked the hotel since Wednesday.
4:35 pm: Commandos lead operation in ballroom of Taj Hotel. Terrorist holed up inside the hotel suspected to be hurling grenades.
4.33 pm: Two huge explosions heard from Nariman House.
4.33 pm: BJP leader L K Advani asks PM to summon a conference of chief ministers of states on the western coastline to chalk out a strategy to counter entry of terrorists through the sea route.
4:25 pm: Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal reaches Oberoi and acknowledges faults in coastal security. He further insisted that Centre and States should join hands in ensuring security.
4.22 pm: Six hostages rescued from Taj Hotel.
4.20 pm: Firing reported on the first floor of Taj Hotel.
4.17 pm: Home Minister Shivraj Patil holds a high-level meeting with top officials to review the situation in Mumbai.
4.15 pm: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that the FBI team will not come to India. The US had reportedly rushed a team of FBI investigators and forensic scientists to Mumbai today.
4.11 pm: 30 bodies recovered from Trident hotel, including 24 today, says Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor.
4.05 pm: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil announces to create NSG-like body in the state. He added that 15 policemen and two NSG personnel martyred in anti-terror operations.
3.50 pm: Nine blasts rock Taj Hotel in 10 minutes.
3.38 pm: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani accepts a request from his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to send the ISI chief to India for sharing of information related to the terrorist attack in Mumbai.
3.34 pm: Two to three terrorists suspected to be holed up in Nariman House, says Mumbai police chief.
3.34 pm: One terrorist being engaged by NSG commandos at Taj Mahal Hotel in south Mumbai, says Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor.
3.28 pm: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari calls Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, assures him of Islamabad's co-operation in the war against terrorism.
3.26 pm: Coast Guard Commander Satish Chandran said that the boat 'Kuber' apprehended by the Mumbai Coast Guard on the suspicion that it was used by the terrorists to travel to the city, belongs to a resident from Porbandar.
3.16 pm: According to Russian arms exporting company 'Rosoboronexport', terrorists holed up inside Taj and Trident-Oberoi hotels allowed 17 Russian hostages, including nine defence contractors, to leave after checking their passports, following which they were safely evacuated.
3.05 pm: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asks his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani to send ISI chief to Delhi to share information on Mumbai terror attacks.
3.04 pm: Eight blasts heard from Taj Hotel.
3.02 pm: Police say one terrorist holed up in Taj Hotel and four in Nariman House.
3.01 pm: Four grenades hurled outside Taj Hotel.Heavy gunbattle continues.
2.00 pm: Operation complete in Oberoi Trident, NSG takes control of situation
1.52 pm: Elements in Pakistan responsible for Mumbai attacks according to preliminary information with us, says External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
1.32 pm: Railway Police Commissioner A K Sharma refutes report of fresh firing at CST.
1.30 pm: Explosion heard outside Taj Hotel. Security personnel are on high alert. Army confirms one terrorist still holed up inside the hotel.
1.24 pm: At least 148 hostages, majority of them foreigners, rescued from Trident (Oberoi) hotel.
1.20 pm: One or two terrorists may still be inside the old Oberoi hotel building, say military sources.
1.12 pm: Fresh firing was reported at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST). Later, it was denied by the Railway authorities.
1.00 pm: Six more teams of Rapid Action Force (RAF) are on way to Taj Hotel.
12.42 pm: Terrorists on third floor of Nariman House.
12.40 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh visits Trident-Oberoi. The CM tells media that Trident hotel is "totally clear" and the Oberoi section is "almost clear".
12.30 pm: NSG commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan killed in the operation at Taj Hotel.
12.25 pm: A Marine Commando revealed that China-made grenades have been found from the terrorists killed by security forces. Marine commandos have recovered 30 bodies from the Taj hotel, he said. The officer added that terrorists had foreign currency and credit cards of various banks. The terrorists had identity cards of Mauritius, he said. Revealing more details, the officer said that terrorists possessed AK series rifles and were fully aware of Taj Hotel layout.
12.20 pm: Rescue operation at Nariman House strengthens.
12.10 pm: Terrorist reportedly killed in crossfire at Trident-Oberoi.
12.07 pm: A terrorist reportedly escaped from Nariman House this morning.
12.03 pm: The US is rushing a team of FBI investigators and forensic scientists to Mumbai.
11.55 am: Heavy gunfire reported from Taj Hotel.
11.53 am: Massive explosion on the road outside the old building of Taj Hotel.
11.50 am: Terrorists hurl two grenades from Taj Hotel. Meanwhile, two grenades have also been hurled from Nariman House.
11.44 am: Four terrorists believed to be inside Nariman House.
11.44 am: Fresh firing reported at Taj Hotel.
11.43 am: At least 93 persons held hostage by terrorists in Trident-Oberoi hotel rescued, police officials said. Majority of them are foreigners.
11.43 am: Terrorists fire at NSG commandos from fourth floor of Nariman House.
11:26 am: Six foreigners among 35-45 people rescued from Trident-Oberoi hotel. At least 100 persons, including a World Bank official, are suspected to be still trapped inside the hotel.
11:20 am: Fire exchange resumes at Nariman House. Approximately 8-9 commandos reportedly enter Prem Bhawan, near Nariman House, with two cartons of supplies.
11:13 am: Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said that rescue operation will last for long.
11:12 am: Two terrorists reported to be killed inside Trident-Oberoi hotel.
10.57 am: Southern Command General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Lt Gen N Thamburaj suspected that a terrorist may still be holed up inside old Taj building. He informed that the terrorist has switched off the lights in two floors and is on the move constantly. The NSG has established contact with this terrorist. He, however, expressed optimism that operation will be wrapped up in just “a few hours”. New Taj Hotel building has been totally sanitised and handed over to the police, Thamburaj said.
10.35 am: At least 35-45 more hostages, majority of them foreigners, rescued from Trident-Oberoi hotel.
10.12 am: Evacuations underway in two floors of Trident-Oberoi hotel. Meanwhile, management of the hotel ensured that all guests are safe.
9.55 am: Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi reaches Trident-Oberoi hotel. Describing the terror attacks on Mumbai as the one on “India’s sovereignty”, Modi said that terrorists chose the city to make it an epicentre of international terrorism. He further accused Pakistan of violating the UN code on the use of land and sea routes for launch of terror strikes against India.
9.50 am: Stock markets open.
9.46 am: Smoke emerges from a dome on Taj Hotel.
9.45 am: Fresh firing at Trident-Oberoi hotel.
9.35 am: 15-20 people believed to be trapped inside Taj Hotel.
9.28 am: Heavy exchange of gunfire at Nariman House.
9.26 am: Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India, C B Bhave, asks stock exchanges to be ready to begin trading on Friday, but plans to take a final call on resumption just before the starting time.
9.20 am: Explosion heard from Trident-Oberoi hotel.
9.00 am: Commandos atop Nariman House.
8.50 am: General R K Hooda, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa area, reaches Nariman House.
8.40 am: Zee News contacts Lalmani Prasad, Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Basti, who is held up in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel. Shocked and terrified Prasad has not come out of his room since Wednesday.
8.35 am: Helicopters hover around Taj Hotel. According to reports, commandos are getting ready for final assault there.
8.29 am: Two loud explosions heard from Nariman House.
8.25 am: 30 rounds of ammunition fired till now.
8.20 am: Unconfirmed reports claim that one commando has been injured during the ongoing Nariman House operation.
8.15 am: Terrorists thought to be holed up at the 4th floor of Nariman House.
8.10 am: Commandos surround the Nariman House, snipers in position on roofs of all surrounding buildings.
8.09 am: Another grenade blast on the fourth floor of Nariman house.
8.05 am: NSG bringing in more commandos from Delhi.
7.55 am: More Army personnel deployed at Oberoi.
7.45am: Fresh exchange of firing at Nariman House.
7.40 am: One more helicopter drops commandoes on top of Nariman House.
7.35 am: Helicopter returns to drop more commandos
7.15 am: Two fresh explosions at Nariman House.
7.05 am: NSG commandoes aboard choppers carry out aerial firing at Nariman House.
7.00 am: Two Canadians, including Hollywood actor Michael Rudder, are among those injured in the Mumbai terror attack: Reports
6.55 am: One terrorist reportedly spotted at the third floor of Taj.
6.40 am: More NSG, Army commandos take positions at Oberoi and Nariman House.
5.55 am: Police asks media to stop live telecast of happenings at the Taj.
5.40 am: Another explosion at Nariman House taking the total to three.
5.45 am: Three Israelis reportedly freed from Nariman House.
5.30 am: One more terrorist slain at the Oberoi.
4.15 am: NSG-DG JK Dutt said Trident-Oberoi had been sanitised, two terrorists were in Oberoi, one in Taj and 2-3 at Nariman.
3 am: Police claim all Nariman house hostages freed.
2.25 am: Fresh firing begins between NSG and the holed up terrorists. Reports of an Israeli team being flown in to assist in operations.
12.50 am: One terrorist killed at Oberoi, one still remaining.
12.05 am: Second batch of seven hostages freed from Nariman.
November 27
11.57 pm: Fresh round of fire, one wounded terrorist still inside Taj.
11.40 pm: Second batch of hostages freed at Nariman.
11.30 pm: Fresh firing heard at Nariman house.
11.15 pm: Taj cleared of terrorists, say Army sources.
11.00 pm: Some of the hostages rescued from Nariman house.
10.20 pm: Major fire breaks out at the Taj.
10.00 pm: Army launches final operation.
9.40 pm: PM Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi reach Mumbai, visit JJ Hospital.
9.30 pm: Advani, Jaswant Singh land in Mumbai.
8.00 pm: 4 more terrorists killed at the Taj. Another mammoth explosion in the Oberoi, starts huge fire.
7.30 pm: Major fire breaks out in Trident hotel.
6.45 pm: Large contingent of the RAF comes out of the New Taj building, two explosions heard in the Oberoi.
6.00 pm: Fourteen more people evacuated from the Oberoi, 50 more commandoes enter the Taj.
5:45: pm: Four injured foreign nationals have been moved out of the Trident hotel.
5.40: pm: A special NSG team specialised in managing hostage crisis, moves to Nariman house armed with rocket launchers and bazookas. Their aim is to flush out terrorists still holed inside and to free trapped Israeli hostages.
5.20 pm: The NSG arrests one militant at the Trident. The arrested terrorist has been identified as Abu Ismail from Faridkot in Pakistan.
4.56 pm: According to recent reports, five persons are being held as hostages at Nariman House.
4.55 pm: The Indian Navy spokesman Capt Manohar Nambiar says the Navy has "located the ship (MV Alpha) and now we are in the process of boarding it and searching it."
4.55 pm: Firing intensifies at Taj hotel and Trident hotel.
4.40 pm: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirms that the attacks are being carried out by a group based out of the country. He further promises to set up a Federal Investigation Authority to fight terror in a co-ordinated manner.
4.40 pm: 30 hostages have been freed from Trident hotel. However, reports claim that 35 people are still trapped inside the hotel.
4.40 pm: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoles the deaths, describes the attacks as pre-planned. He further vows to take the strongest possible action in an address to the nation.
Timeline of attacks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7754438.stm
Anita Uddaiya
26/11: Anita Uddaiya was taken to US for questioning
Published: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 at 18:24 IST
Mumbai, Jan 15: Anita Uddaiya, the woman who saw the six terrorists involved in the November 26 terror attacks arrive in the city, claims she was taken to the US and questioned by investigating agencies there.
"I was informed that the (U.S.) officers who questioned me about the Mumbai attacks here earlier would take me to America. They came on Sunday morning and had taken me to America in a flight," Uddaiya told reporters.
"I had lied to the police when I returned home stating that I went to Satara district as the officers told me not to disclose anything about my visit to America," Uddaiya said.
Uddaiya went missing on Sunday morning and returned to Mumbai yesterday at around 1.30 AM to her home.
She had seen the terrorists land in a rubber dinghy on the beach at the colony. But when she asked them where they had come from, she was told to mind her own business.
Giving details, she said on Saturday at around 10.00 PM, the investigating officers were supposed to come to her home.
"Since we were informed about Uddiaya's America visit, we sat with her throughout the night waiting for the American investigators. Nobody turned up till morning 5 AM. At that time, Uddaiya went to toilet from where she was whisked away by the investigators," said Madhusudhan Nair, president of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar slum area where Uddaiya resides.
Uddaiya said four officers were inside the posh vehicle and one of them knew Hindi.
"First, I was taken to St George Hospital to see my husband Rajendra. I told him that I would return home in a couple of days," Uddaiya said.
"From the hospital I was taken to airport", Uddaiya said adding "I was sitting in the airport while they (officers) were showing all the documents to the officials at the airport. I had no luggage with me. After sometime, I boarded the flight but I was feeling uncomfortable," Uddaiya recalled. Uddaiya, who spent 17-18 hours in her flight to the U.S., said she was told "we were heading to America. I could not eat in the flight properly as they were serving chocolates, sandwiches and some other stuff. I don't know how I managed to eat that food." "I was taken to a posh hotel in a car soon after I landed in America. After a couple of hours, we all went to a building where I was asked several questions about the terrorists and Mumbai attacks," she said.
She said she was asked about the terrorists whom she had seen landing at Mumbai. "The questions were translated in Hindi by one of them and whatever answers I had given were also explained to them in English. Everything was over in two to three hours." "I even called Hamid Qureshi (a scrap dealer where she works in Mumbai) telling him that I am safe," she said adding she was taken to the hotel subsequently and then to the airport to board a flight back to Mumbai.
On returning home in a taxi from Mumbai airport, she said she was confused and surprised at what was happening around her. "I told the police that I had been to Satara as investigators (American officers) told me not to reveal anything about the American visit," she said.
On her return, Uddaiya said she was taken to Cuffe Parade police station for recording her statement. After the Mumbai attacks, Uddaiya had also been shown pictures of ten terrorists but she was not taken to J J Hospital to identify the bodies of the terrorists, she said.
From boats
Timeline: Two Days of Terror
For more than two days, Mumbai has been gripped by fear as terrorists fanned out through its colonial heart in a well-planned assault, killing more than 150 people and taking hostages at two hotels and a Jewish center. Here, based on accounts from New York Times reporters, official publications and news reports, is a timeline of events as they unfolded.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/28/world/asia/20081129_mumbai_graphic.html
At Nariman House
Date Estimated Time Event
Nov 27 7 AM Police begin evacuating adjacent buildings.
Nov 27 11 AM Cross firing between terrorists and police; one terrorist injured.
Nov 27 2:45 PM Terrorists throw grenade into nearby lane; no casualties.
Nov 27 5:30 PM NSG commandos arrive, naval helicopter takes aerial survey.
Nov 27 11 PM Operations continue.
Nov 27 12 PM 9 hostages are rescued from first floor.
Nov 28 7:30 AM NSG commandos are airdropped onto Nariman house.[77]
Nov 28 7:30 PM Commandos find all 6 hostages including Rabbi and his wife killed by the terrorists.
Nov 28 8:30 PM NSG commandos declare operations over, 2 terrorists killed.
At the Oberoi Trident
Date Estimated Time Event
Nov 27 6 AM NSG arrives, storms hotel.
Nov 27 8:40 AM Firing heard, top army, navy officers arrive and take stock.
Nov 27 1:30 PM Two small explosions. More reinforcements enter building.
Nov 27 3:25 PM Some foreign hostages rescued.
Nov 27 5:35 PM Sikh regiment arrives, fierce gun battle.
Nov 27 6 PM 27 hostages exit Air India building, four foreigners taken to hospital.
Nov 27 6:45 PM Explosion heard. Two NSG guards, 25 army personnel suspected injured. More people rescued, 31 in total.
Nov 27 7:10 PM 1 terrorist arrested.
Nov 27 7:25 PM Fire breaks out on 4th floor.
Nov 27 11 PM Operations continue.
Nov 28 10 AM Many hostages evacuated from the Trident building.
Nov 28 3:00 PM Commando operations at Oberoi over, 24 bodies recovered.[75] 143 hostages rescued alive. Two terrorists shot dead.[76]
Entry into India
Date Estimated Time
(+0530 UTC) Event
Nov 21 evening Ten terrorists leave Karachi, Pakistan in a boat & travel for thirty-eight hours, remaining undetected by the Indian Navy. [69][70]
Nov 22 Each of the 10 men is given 6 to 7 magazines of 30 rounds each plus 400 rounds not loaded in magazines, 8 hand grenades, one AK-47 assault rifle, an automatic loading revolver, credit cards and a supply of dried fruit.[69] [71]
Nov 22 A separate group checks in to the Taj Hotel with arms and ammunition.[69]
Nov 23 The terrorists hijack an Indian trawler, the Kuber, killing four fishermen and ordering the captain to sail to India.[69]
Nov 26 They reach within four nautical miles (7 kilometres) of Mumbai and kill the captain. They then proceed to board three inflatable speedboats and reach Colaba jetty at dusk.[69]
Nov 26 The ten men get off at Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade, three blocks away from Nariman House.[69]
Nov 26 Four of the men enter the Taj Mahal Hotel, two enter the Oberoi Trident, two enter Nariman House, and the other two men, Azam and Ismail, take a taxi to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.[69]
At the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel
Sources: NDTV[72], Evening Standard[55], and BBC[73]
Date Estimated Time
(+0530 UTC) Event
Nov 26 11:00 PM Terrorists enter Taj hotel.[72]
Nov 27 12:00 AM Mumbai police surround the hotel.[72]
Nov 27 01:00 AM Massive blast in the central dome, fire in the building.[72]
Nov 27 02:30 AM Army soldiers arrive in two trucks and enter the front lobby. Fire spreads across the top floor.[72]
Nov 27 03:00 AM Fire engines arrive. Shooting is heard inside lobby and heritage building.[72]
Nov 27 4:00 AM Firemen rescue people with ladders.[72] More than 200 people evacuated.
Nov 27 4:30 AM Terrorists reported to move from central dome to new tower.[72]
Nov 27 5:00 AM Commandos and Bomb squad arrive. Police step up pressure.[72]
Nov 27 5:30 AM Fire brought under control but terrorists holed up in new tower with 100 to 150 hostages.[72]
Nov 27 6:30 AM Security forces say they are ready for encounter.[72]
Nov 27 8:00 AM People are brought out of the lobby.[72]
Nov 27 8:30 AM Another 50 people brought out of Chambers Club.[72]
Nov 27 9:00 AM More rounds of firing, many more people reported to be still inside.[72]
Nov 27 10:30 AM Gun battle reported from inside hotel.
Nov 27 12 Noon 50 people evacuated.
Nov 27 4:30 PM Terrorists set fire to a room on the 4th floor
Nov 27 7:20 PM More NSG commandos arrive, enter hotel.
Nov 27 11:00 PM Operations continue.
Nov 27 2:53 PM Six bodies recovered.
Nov 27–28 2:53 PM – 3:59 Ten grenade explosions.
Nov 28 3:00 PM Marine commandos recover explosives from Taj.
Nov 28 4.00 PM 12 to 15 bodies recovered from the Taj by naval commandos.
Nov 28 7:30 PM Fresh explosions and gun shots at Taj Hotel.
Nov 28 8:30 PM Report that one terrorist remains at the Taj.
Nov 29 3:40 AM – 4:10 AM Reports of five explosions at the Taj.
Nov 29 5:05 AM Revised estimate of one terrorist remaining.
Nov 29 07:30 AM Fire raging on first floor. Black smoke on second floor. Gunshots heard frequently — apparent gun battle.
Nov 29 08:00 AM Indian commandos state that the Taj Hotel is now under control though they are still conducting room to room searches. People celebrate on the streets.[74]
Same tactics used in Kabul, Mumbai attacks
Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:38:52 GMT
Gov't buildings in Kabul came under attack on Wednesday
Afghan officials say tactics employed by militants in Wednesday's terrorist attacks in Kabul were similar to those used in the Mumbai carnage.
Militants launched a series of attacks on government buildings in Kabul on Wednesday morning after sending text messages to the leader of their cell in Pakistan, the head of the Afghan Intelligence Service, Amrullah Saleh said.
Saleh did not directly blame the Pakistani based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, for the attack, however he said, "As they were entering the Ministry of Justice and before starting the indiscriminate killing of the civilians there, they sent three messages to Pakistan, calling for the blessing of their mastermind."
The number of casualties from Wednesday's attacks has risen to 36 and many civilians were among the dead.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Abdul Basit, said he was not aware of the Afghan officials' comments and could not answer any questions.
Insurgents with assault rifles, grenades and suicide vests targeted the Prisons Directorate, and Justice and Education Ministries in the nearly simultaneous attacks on Wednesday.
Afghan police forces have detained 21 suspects and an investigation is underway.
For Mumbai's Children, No Illusion of Safety
Psychologists Cite Trauma, Insecurity In Wake of Attacks
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 7, 2008; A21
MUMBAI, Dec. 6 In the middle of math class, Pinak Patel, 12, sometimes imagines himself shooting terrorists, bravely protecting his family. His schoolmate Abbas Jinial, 14, can't sleep and keeps looking out the window of his family's apartment, fearful that some of the gunmen might be lurking in the darkened alleys of his neighborhood.
"All night, for three days, I heard the shooting. All night for those days, I was staying awake. I felt so scared," said Pinak, who witnessed from his home's balcony the hostage-taking and destruction at Chabad House during the siege of Mumbai late last month. The building, also known as Nariman House, is home to a Jewish center, and Indian commandos were dropped from helicopters onto its roof to seize control from gunmen. As Pinak watched the operation, five hostages, including a rabbi and his wife, were killed inside. "After a while, I had in mind that it was like a movie, and I said, 'Mama, I could save everyone,' " he said.
For millions of children, the assault on the city presented scenes of violence they had never before encountered. The 60-hour siege, in which at least 171 people were killed by heavily armed assailants, brought bloodshed to areas of Mumbai thought to be somewhat invulnerable -- luxury hotels, hospitals, a heavily guarded train station -- sending a message to children that nowhere is it safe.
Psychologists said that, as with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, images of the Mumbai siege will be imprinted on the memory of a generation, a traumatic backdrop that probably will shape their attitudes for years.
"The older generation was never exposed to this kind of violence, at this kind of intensity -- live -- on the city's streets, on TV 24 hours a day. It was like an urban war," said Mithila Desai, a clinical psychologist who is offering counseling sessions in Mumbai's schools. "Children feel targeted, insecure and fearful about the future. The main fear is that they will lose their loved ones, and when they say goodbye to their parents in the morning, they feel as if they may not return home."
JAMMU, Dec 19: Two more top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants including a ‘tehsil commander’ were gunned down by police and Army in an encounter at village Kairni, Tantna in Bharat area of Doda district this morning taking toll in two operations during last two days to five including four LeT commanders and an Army jawan. A SPO was injured in today’s operation.
SSP Doda Prabhat Singh said police and Army, who had launched a massive search operation at Kairni yesterday afternoon and gunned down a top LeT commander Mohd Iqbal Malik alias Abu Umair, resumed the searches this morning with the onset of dawn.
Police and Army had cordoned off entire area at Kairni to ensure that the militants didn’t manage to escape.
IGP Jammu zone K Rajendera and DIG Doda range Hemant Kumar Lohia were in constant touch with operational parties supervising the biggest ever operation in the recent past in which three dreaded LeT commanders were involved.
Mr Rajendera has lauded the efforts of Doda police which killed four top Lashkar commanders in just two days and promised them suitable rewards.
The militants, who had slipped into Kairni forests, were pursued in the morning and finally engaged in the gun-battle by a joint team of police, 8 Rashtriya Rifles and 76 CRPF.
Militants lobbed several grenades towards the security personnel and opened indiscriminate firing, which was retaliated. In over two hour long gun-fighting, the two remaining militants were killed, Mr Singh said.
All three LeT commanders involved in the operation have been killed. One of them was killed last evening while two others were eliminated this morning. The trio have been identified as Mohd Iqbal Malik alias Abu Umair son of Abdul Gani Malik R/o Nalla, Bharat, a ‘deputy divisional commander’, Mohd Ashraf son of Khazar Shan R/o Parnot, Doda, a ‘tehsil commander’ and Nawaz Ahmed Mir alias Abu Murshid son of Abdul Rehman R/o Ludna, Doda.
The massive Nov. 26 militant attack in Mumbai, India, promises to cut deeply into India’s foreign investment prospects and rock India’s government. As India responds to the attack, the chance of a destabilization in its relations with Pakistan is high.
The Mumbai attacks 'closely followed' the framework of a foiled 1993 New York plot, including 'high-profile soft targets' such as hotels, the use of watercraft to gain access to sites and the choice of weaponry, according to a Dec. 3 report from Austin, Texas-based Stratfor, an intelligence company."
Bloomberg
December 5, 2008
Is this related ?
In the latest attack, a car bombing Friday in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed 29 people and wounded 100 more. The blast wrecked a Shiite Muslim mosque and a hotel, but the motive and culprits were not immediately known.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gCj87Nwf62wEb8jypx0Auk_-Rv0w
Goa's party season low-key after Mumbai attacks
PANAJI, India (AFP) — The Mumbai attacks have cast a shadow over the Indian resort state of Goa, with its famous end-of-year party season likely to be hit as foreigners stay away and security is tightened.
Some 400,000 overseas tourists flock to the former Portuguese colony every year, particularly for Christmas and New Year's Eve, escaping colder climes to soak up the sun and then dance until dawn on its long sandy beaches.
But there are concerns about the sharp dip in visitors at what is normally the busiest time of year for the hoteliers, restaurateurs and beach hut owners.
"There has been a 20 percent decrease in tourist arrivals," said Ralf D'Souza, president of the Tour and Travel Association of Goa.
Some are domestic travellers, including the well-heeled from Mumbai 600 kilometres to the north, who head to the western Indian state for weekend breaks. Others are big-spending foreigners.
"There have been cancellations from Russia and the United Kingdom, which make up much of the foreign clientele," D'Souza told AFP.
A number of foreign governments, including Britain, Australia and the United States, amended their travel advice for India after the November attacks, which left 172 people dead, including nine gunmen, and injured nearly 300.
Israel has warned that year-end celebrations in Goa "could be the target of attacks by Islamist extremists" and urged its citizens to stay away. Russia issued a similar warning to its nationals last week.
Yet even before the Mumbai attacks, Goa, made famous as a stop-off on the hippie trail in the 1960s and 1970s and whose party culture is still a big draw, was suffering from a damaged reputation.
In February, the body of a 15-year-old British girl, Scarlett Keeling, was discovered on a Goa beach.
She was later found to have taken a cocktail of drink and drugs before her death, sparking concerns about the easy availability of illegal substances and the safety of foreign travellers.
Tourist authorities and police launched a crackdown when the season began in October, but were then hit by allegations that the son of a state government minister raped a German teenager.
The case was later dropped, with the alleged victim's mother claiming she was pressured into doing so by the authorities.
State tourism minister Francisco Pacheco said that any attack on Goa would be the final nail in its image as a carefree paradise destination.
"We don't mind tourists not coming for this season if they are wary of security but we don't want a terror attack to happen. That will entirely finish Goa's image," he added.
With that in mind -- and a recent warning in a leaked memo from the chief minister that the resort could be targeted by Al-Qaeda -- government officials have been busy tightening defences.
State police have enlisted the help of the Indian navy, coastguard and marine police to patrol the shores, mindful that the 10 Islamist extremists who attacked Mumbai arrived by sea.
Bunkers have been constructed on beaches and the popular night-time tourist markets have been told to increase vigilance and install closed-circuit television cameras as they may be targeted.
Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations have not been cancelled but revellers are being told to expect rigid security, and officials are yet to decide on whether to allow beach parties.
Occupancy rates in the south Mumbai five-star hotels frequented by business travelers like Fesko are down by one-third since the siege, according to the Hotel Association of India.
Few predict terror alone will derail business travel to India for the long haul. But as corporate travelers limp back, they are asking tough questions about security, demanding that high-profile hotels prove they have measures in place to deflect violence. Those demands, fueled by a still-palpable fear, are forcing the city's top hotels to rethink the delicate balance between security and hospitality.
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives, a U.S. nonprofit group, surveyed 134 corporate travel managers after the Mumbai attacks. They found that just 6 percent planned to curtail travel to the region, but 78 percent were reviewing their hotel contracts with a greater emphasis on security.
Goa's party season low-key after Mumbai attacks
by Lita Barretto
PANAJI, India, Dec 16, 2008 (AFP) - The Mumbai attacks have cast a shadow over the Indian resort state of Goa, with its famous end-of-year party season likely to be hit as foreigners stay away and security is tightened.
Some 400,000 overseas tourists flock to the former Portuguese colony every year, particularly for Christmas and New Year's Eve, escaping colder climes to soak up the sun and then dance until dawn on its long sandy beaches.
But there are concerns about the sharp dip in visitors at what is normally the busiest time of year for the hoteliers, restaurateurs and beach hut owners.
"There has been a 20 per cent decrease in tourist arrivals," said Ralf D'Souza, president of the Tour and Travel Association of Goa.
Some are domestic travellers, including the well-heeled from Mumbai 600 kilometres to the north, who head to the western Indian state for weekend breaks. Others are big-spending foreigners.
"There have been cancellations from Russia and the United Kingdom, which make up much of the foreign clientele," D'Souza told AFP.
A number of foreign governments, including Britain, Australia and the United States, amended their travel advice for India after the November attacks, which left 172 people dead, including nine gunmen, and injured nearly 300.
Israel has warned that year-end celebrations in Goa "could be the target of attacks by Islamist extremists" and urged its citizens to stay away. Russia issued a similar warning to its nationals last week.
07:46 GMT, Thursday, 4 December 2008
Indian authorities have put three major airports on high alert after a threat of possible attacks by militants who claimed last week's Mumbai attacks.
Extra checks are being carried out at the airports in the capital Delhi and the cities of Chennai and Bangalore.
The threat came from the previously unknown Deccan Mujahideen, which said it carried out the multiple attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 188.
India says the attackers had links to Pakistan, which has denied any role.
Hoax call fuels Pakistan-Indian tensions
Pakistani people are seen next to a building on fire at the site of an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 5, 2008. A car bomb devastated a busy street in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Pakistani people are seen next to a building on fire at the site of an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 5, 2008. A car bomb devastated a busy street in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) (Mohammad Sajjad - AP)
Pakistani people gather at the site after an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008. The death toll from an overnight car bombing rose to 29 in northwest Pakistan, unnerving a region already dangerously on edge following the attacks on India's commercial capital, police and doctors said Saturday. About 100 people were also wounded Friday when the bomb went off near Peshawar's famed Storytellers Bazaar, wrecking a Shiite Muslim mosque and a hotel and setting a string of vehicles and shops ablaze, said Mohammed Khan, a local police official. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Pakistani people gather at the site after an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008. The death toll from an overnight car bombing rose to 29 in northwest Pakistan, unnerving a region already dangerously on edge following the attacks on India's commercial capital, police and doctors said Saturday. About 100 people were also wounded Friday when the bomb went off near Peshawar's famed Storytellers Bazaar, wrecking a Shiite Muslim mosque and a hotel and setting a string of vehicles and shops ablaze, said Mohammed Khan, a local police official. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) (Mohammad Sajjad - AP)
Pakistani people gather at the site after an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008. The death toll from an overnight car bombing rose to 29 in northwest Pakistan, unnerving a region already dangerously on edge following the attacks on India's commercial capital, police and doctors said Saturday. About 100 people were also wounded Friday when the bomb went off near Peshawar's famed Storytellers Bazaar, wrecking a Shiite Muslim mosque and a hotel and setting a string of vehicles and shops ablaze, said Mohammed Khan, a local police official. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Pakistani people gather at the site after an explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008. The death toll from an overnight car bombing rose to 29 in northwest Pakistan, unnerving a region already dangerously on edge following the attacks on India's commercial capital, police and doctors said Saturday. About 100 people were also wounded Friday when the bomb went off near Peshawar's famed Storytellers Bazaar, wrecking a Shiite Muslim mosque and a hotel and setting a string of vehicles and shops ablaze, said Mohammed Khan, a local police official. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) (Mohammad Sajjad - AP)
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By MUNIR AHMED
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 6, 2008; 7:15 AM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A man pretending to be India's foreign minister called Pakistan's president and talked in a "threatening" manner during the Mumbai terror attacks, prompting Pakistan to put its air force on high alert, a security official and a news report said Saturday.
Dawn newspaper said authorities were investigating the circumstances of the hoax, which occurred as tensions spiked between the nuclear-armed neighbors during the attacks.
The atrocity, which began Nov. 26, is being blamed by India on Pakistani extremists.
Indian officials were not immediately available to comment on the telephone call.
The call by a man identifying himself as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was put through to President Asif Ali Zardari on Nov. 28, said the security official, who declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
"India through diplomatic channels has informed the Pakistani Foreign Ministry that Pranab Mukherjee made no such call," he said. "Now what still needs to be checked is who made this threatening call."
Dawn newspaper said the country's air force was put on high alert in response to the telephone call. It said it came from a New Delhi number, but that Indian officials believed the caller ID could have been manipulated.
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/media/comment/mumbai/
----------------------------
Dr Paul Cornish, Head, International Security Programme and Carrington Chair in International Security, Chatham House
Quite apart from the scores murdered and the hundreds injured, what the Mumbai terrorists really wanted was an exaggerated and preferably extreme reaction on the part of governments, the media and public opinion. In these terms, the attackers received as much attention as they could possibly have hoped for, and the Mumbai outrage can only be described as a very significant terrorist success.
The attack received saturation coverage in the world's media from the outset. Almost within minutes, television screens showed harrowing scenes of pools of blood where people had died or been injured, hotels ablaze, Indian army snipers firing at distant targets, and CCTV images of the attackers. Especially disturbing, hostages and survivors reported that certain nationalities had been identified by their passports and taken away for execution.
Mumbai's Muslims distance themselves from attacks
MUMBAI (AFP) — From peace marches to calls for toned-down Eid celebrations, Mumbai's Muslims are doing all they can to dissociate themselves from last week's attacks that were carried out in the name of Islam.
Even though dozens of the 172 dead were Muslim, community leaders have expressed concerns that Hindu nationalists could exploit the attacks for political gain -- or could target Muslims directly.
The city's Muslims, who make up about 15 percent of Mumbai's estimated 19-million-strong population, were to take to the streets after Friday prayers in a peace march.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aF44YOpTiIJk&refer=asia
Pakistan’s Crackdown on Militants Leaves Imams Preaching Jihad
By James Rupert
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A dozen Pakistani policemen stood watch last week outside a Lahore mosque known to be a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla group -- while the imam inside preached jihad to thousands of worshippers.
The squad’s presence was part of Pakistan’s vow to curb Lashkar, which India blames for the Nov. 26-29 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 164 people, and it showed how limited that effort has been. As the officers heard Saifullah Khalid’s sermon blaring over loudspeakers, he demanded more attacks on India.
“Muslims under the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat ud-Dawa will conquer all South Asia!” Khalid roared. “Nobody can stop us from fighting India!”
Pakistan’s offensive -- in response to international pressure to suppress Lashkar and its civilian ally, Jamaat -- is halting and partial at best, says Ahmed Rashid, a Lahore-based analyst and author of several books on Pakistan and Islamic militancy. Fewer Jamaat leaders have been arrested, and fewer of its schools closed, than the national government claims, according to provincial-level figures.
Because the country’s politically dominant army has cultivated Lashkar and Jamaat to help confront India over the disputed territory of Kashmir, “there is not going to be any sudden U-turn in policy,” Rashid said. “I don’t expect a proper crackdown.”
India and the U.S. say Lashkar plotted the attack on Mumbai that killed 164 people, and President Barack Obama has vowed to step up pressure on Pakistan. At the same time, he needs the country’s help as the U.S. increases military forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named senior diplomat Richard Holbrooke as special representative for the two countries.
Jamaat Ban
Pakistan has responded with some actions against Lashkar and Jamaat. One day after a United Nations counterterrorism committee declared Jamaat a front for the Lashkar guerrillas, Rehman Malik, top security adviser to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, announced a ban on the organization.
The order included the closure of the group’s bank accounts and offices, the takeover of its schools and the arrest of its leaders. On Jan. 15, Malik said 71 Jamaat activists were in custody. Lashkar was officially banned in 2001.
On the ground, things look a little different. In Punjab province, Lashkar and Jamaat’s main base, only six Jamaat leaders have been detained, according to documents provided by provincial government spokesman Pervez Rashid. Interior Ministry spokesman Shahidullah Baig declined to comment on the discrepancy in numbers, saying he wasn’t authorized to discuss issues related to the Mumbai attack.
Preaching From House Arrest
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar and Jamaat, was put under house arrest on Dec. 11, yet later that month was able to attend prayers at a nearby mosque, said Amir Mir, a journalist and author of books on Pakistani militant groups. Mir lives near Saeed’s home in Lahore’s Johar Town neighborhood and cited sources in Jamaat who detailed Saeed’s movements.
While Jamaat says it runs 202 schools nationwide, authorities have taken over only 10 in Punjab, its stronghold, provincial spokesman Rashid’s documents showed. “All of the schools we know, we have taken over,” Rashid said.
On Jan. 22, a reporter found access to Jamaat’s 75-acre headquarters campus at Muridke, north of Lahore, unmonitored by government officials. Three days later, police arrived to establish a checkpoint and install a government administrator, according to local press reports.
Talking to Fighters
Indian government surveillance shows that Pakistan hasn’t prevented Lashkar’s communications with its guerrilla fighters in Indian-administered Kashmir, said Ajit Doval, a former chief of India’s domestic Intelligence Bureau. He is a security consultant and analyst and keeps in touch with former colleagues.
Pakistan’s actions so far aren’t meant to truly investigate or prosecute Pakistanis involved in the Mumbai attack, “but rather are designed to save the state from embarrassment,” Doval said in a telephone interview from New Delhi.
Almost two months after India published names and hometowns of men it said were the nine Mumbai attackers killed during the assault, Pakistan hasn’t responded.
The 10-month-old civilian government of Pakistani President Asif Zardari is caught between economic and political vulnerabilities. Pakistan’s dependence on a bailout from the International Monetary Fund makes it sensitive to external pressures, while Jamaat ud-Dawa’s social work -- running schools and clinics that the government has failed to provide -- has won public support.
Constrained By Military?
Zardari’s government “is either unwilling to comprehensively shut down” Lashkar and Jamaat “or, more likely, is seriously constrained from doing so by the military and intelligence agencies,” the Washington-based RAND Corp. said in a Jan. 19 report.
“If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts” and “we would sentence them,” Zardari said in an interview with CNN on Dec. 3.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, which in Pakistan’s Urdu language means “Army of the Pure,” arose from the Muslim guerrilla forces backed by Pakistan and the U.S. against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
In the following decade, Saeed shifted the group’s focus to Kashmir, whose territory Pakistan has disputed with India since the countries’ independence from British rule in 1947. Pakistan’s main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, gave it protection, according to a 2005 report by Husain Haqqani, a scholar who is now the country’s ambassador in Washington.
In December 2001, the U.S. declared Lashkar a terrorist organization. That month, Pakistan formally banned the group and put Saeed under house arrest. A court freed him months later, citing a lack of evidence against him.
The administration of former President George W. Bush hesitated to pressure Pakistan’s army to shut down Lashkar because it feared the military might stop offering supply lines and other aid in the war in Afghanistan, the RAND report said. Lashkar’s growing reach, shown by the Mumbai assault, includes attacks on U.S. troops in northeastern Afghanistan, it said.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Lahore at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 27, 2009 14:01 EST
Pakistani officers helped plan Mumbai attacks, says India
* Randeep Ramesh, South Asia correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 February 2009 16.04 GMT
More serving Pakistani army officers may be named as conspirators in the Mumbai terror attacks, according to officials dealing with the case, after an 11,509-page charge sheet identified two high-ranking Pakistani military personnel who directed militants during the three-day killing spree.
Police in India named Colonel R Sadatullah of the Pakistani army's Special Communications Organisation (SCO) as part of the conspiracy to attack India's financial centre – a bloody rampage that left more than 170 people dead. Investigators said his email account was used to set up the "voice over internet" system – which allows calls to be made over the web.
Today Indian television contacted Sadatullah after being given his number by the Pakistani army switchboard. He hung up. Another accused is known as "Major General Sahab", whose title is used repeatedly in the taped conversation between the gunmen and their handlers.
The general manager of the SCO is Major General Muhammad Khalid Rao, an expert on China who joined the corps in 1979. The SCO operates only on the Pakistani side of the Himalayan region of Kashmir – which is claimed by both Pakistan and India.
Brigadier Azmat Ali, Pakistan's army spokesperson, said the "charge sheet does not accurately identify army men allegedly linked to 26/11. There are many Colonel Sadatullahs in the Pakistan army."
Speaking on condition of anonymity, Indian officials said "it was not a good sign to see this kind of response from the Pakistani army … supplementary charge sheets will be added as the investigation progresses and might be many more [Pakistani army] names to add".
Experts said it was significant that the Pakistani army's telecommunications officers had become part of the investigation – pointing out that the militants were guided by phone calls from their handlers in Pakistan.
During the 58-hour siege of Mumbai, a total of 284 calls, running into 995 minutes, were made by the 10 gunmen using mobile phones from the Taj Mahal hotel, Oberoi-Trident and a Jewish centre – where hostages were taken and shot.
Mumbai police point the finger at 38 individuals, 35 of whom are yet to be apprehended. The three who are in police custody include the lone surviving Pakistani gunmen, Ajmal Amir Kasab, and two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ansari. "The investigation is not over," said the officials.
The two Pakistani army officials are mentioned as accomplices of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamist militant group which India says was behind the attacks. The others charged include the group's founder Hafeez Muhammad Saeed and fellow members Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and Abu Hamza.
World Agenda: cricket attack exposes increasing chaos in Pakistan.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5837066.ece?openComment=true
Bronwen Maddox
Yesterday’s terrorist attacks do not mean that Pakistan is a failed state. But it has a failed President. Asif Zardari, a disastrous replacement for his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, is compounding his country’s problems by his pursuit of personal survival at the expense of its Constitution, the rule of law and agreement between the main political parties that they will work to shore up democracy. He is utterly inadequate to meet the threat that Pakistan is facing.
What is it facing? What kind of terrorist group would find it useful to hit at cricket, a national passion? Fingers were pointed yesterday at Lashkar-e-Taiba, widely held responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
The actions of militants make sense only if their aims are the destruction of the normal civil life of Pakistan, as well as the shattering of international links — particularly those with India and others on the sub-continent. Yesterday’s shootings show that terrorism can reach into the heart of Pakistan’s main cities — even Lahore, heart of the Punjab, the part of Pakistan that most solidly functions as a normal country.
Sri Lanka cricket attack - who is to blame?
The attacks in Lahore could be the result of a "holy alliance" of extremists who have come together to try and topple the Pakistani state.
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Last Updated: 9:31PM GMT 03 Mar 2009
They include the Taliban and al-Qaeda but may also have recruited well-trained terrorists from Kashmiri groups such as Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
Their aim is to overthrow the government in Pakistan – whether military or civilian – and replace it with an Islamic one, and attacking high-profile sporting targets such as the Sri Lankan cricket team would fit an agenda which sees music and entertainment as un-Islamic.
Mumbai attacks: Pakistan response to Indian dossier in final stage
New Delhi, Feb 4, 2009: Media reports say that Pakistan is in the final stage of consultation to respond to Indian dossier on Mumbai attacks as the senior Pakistani officials of the interior and foreign ministries held detailed deliberations. Pakistan’s Interior Secretary Kamal Shah also attended an important meeting at the Foreign Office. Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik who came from India on Tuesday also attended the meeting.
Pakistani High Commissioner in India informed the Pakistani government about the mood of the Indian government and the possible reaction from New Delhi. The meeting was called as part of consultation about Mumbai attacks' probe.
However, the official said that it was not a formal meeting. It was just internal consultation between the officials of the interior ministry and foreign office.
Pakistan completes dossier on Mumbai attacks investigations
ISLAMABAD, Feb 3 (KUNA) -- Pakistan has completed the dossier on Mumbai attacks investigations and will soon share it with India and other countries through diplomatic channels, said sources on Tuesday.
Pakistan's High Commission to New Delhi, Shahid Malik, arrived here on Tuesday morning to discuss the final dossier.
Following Are the Highlights of Malik's Remarks:
* Some part of the conspiracy behind the strikes plotted in Pakistan.
* FIR lodged against 9 persons, 6 arrested.
* All booked under Anti-Terrorism Act.
* Mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi located and under investigation.
* Hamad Ameen Sadiq, who facilitated money transfer to the terrorists, arrested.
* Another Pak national Javed Iqbal, who acquired the VoIP phones for attackers in Spain, arrested.
* Pakistan wants Ajmal Amir Kasab's statement made in court.
* Pak seeks answers from India to 30 questions, Including information on finger prints and DNA.
* Some of those involved were LeT operatives.
* LeT operative Zarar Shah, a communication expert, has been located.
* Islamabad would like to seek the custody of Kasab.
* 2 other accused identified only as Khan and Riaz.
* Hamad Ameen Sadiq was the "main operator" in facilitating and coordinating the attacks.
* Investigators bust two militant hideouts -– one in Karachi and another a short distance from the city.
* 9 terrorists travelled to India from Karachi and 3 boats were used by them.
* The shop from where the engine for the boat was purchased has been traced, owner arrested.
* The money for the attackers was paid in Italy and the amount came from Islamabad.
* 3 e-mail accounts and VoIP was done from Spain by Javed Iqbal.
* Some SIM cards used by the terrorists were procured.
6 suspects related to Mumbai attacks arrested in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Rehman Malik said on Thursday that six suspects related to Mumbai attacks had been arrested in Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference in response to the dossier about Mumbai attacks provided by India, Malik said that a First Information Report (FIR) had been filed against the suspects and Pakistan still needed more information from India.
Malik said that the part of the conspiracy was made in Pakistan and the attackers went to India from Thatta, a town in the southern Sindh province in Pakistan.
He unveiled that some materials related to Mumbai attacks were purchased in Pakistan and three boats were used by the attackers.
The attackers would be tried for cyber crime and terrorism, Malik said, adding that any individual who had helped the attackers in India must be identified.
Malik said Pakistan was serious to bring the attackers of the Mumbai attacks to justice on tenable evidence and needed India to share more information.
Malik said that Pakistan did not have the DNA of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone attacker arrested by India in the Mumbai attacks.
The dossier of the investigation, together with 30 questions, has been handed over to India, Malik said.
He said that a suspect from Barcelona with the name of Javed Iqbal had been arrested and he gave other names to the investigators.
Pakistan has turned the information provided by India into evidence and it is credible because the investigation has been conducted by a high-level team, Malik said.
India accused that the Mumbai attacks, which occurred in November last year and left more than 170 people dead, were planned in Pakistan and urged Pakistan to take action against those behind the attacks.
In response to Pakistan's request that evidence should be given, India shared a dossier on Mumbai attacks and Pakistan has conducted investigations on the dossier.
Will respond to 26/11 dossier soon: Pak
2/12/2009 6:53:25 AM
Pakistan has said that it will soon give a direct response to India on the issue of Mumbai attacks.
"Pakistan would hold direct talks with India soon on Mumbai incident probe," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a TV channel in Pakistan.
Dawn News channel quoted Qureshi as saying that the government has "decided" to register a case against suspects in the Mumbai attacks. "We will share information with the Indian High
Commissioner in Islamabad," he said in Lahore.
As Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism, therefore, we will continue to extend our full support to international community on terror war, he said. Qureshi's statement comes just a day after India's external Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that India is yet to recieve any intimation from the Pakistani government. (Read more)
He reiterated that Pakistan would continue its cooperation with international community on war on terror.
New Delhi is unhappy with Islamabad's attitude over the Mumbai dossier since the beginning as it feels the neighbouring country is trying to drag the matter and avoid coming clean on the issue.
Pakistan has completed Mumbai attacks probe: Gilani
Monday, 02 February , 2009, 15:16
Islamabad: Pakistan has completed its probe into the Mumbai attacks and would soon share this with India, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said, even as he pulled up the country's envoy to Britain for speaking out of turn on the issue.
"I assure the world, the media and the government and the people of India that the (Indian) dossier (on Mumbai) has been investigated and has been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice and after their approval, I will take you into confidence," Gilani told reporters here on Sunday on his return from the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos.
Gilani's remarks came on the day Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee took umbrage at Pakistan communicating through the media, instead of diplomatic channels, its progress in the Mumbai probe.
Questioned about the statement by Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hassan that the probe had revealed that the November 26-29, 2008 attacks were planned outside this country, Gilani said he had sought an explanation from the envoy.
Pak yet to give report on 26/11 probe: Pranab
"At times, people are not performing their duties but are doing duties of others," the prime minister maintained.
A combative Mukherjee on Sunday stressed that New Delhi has yet to receive any reply on the Mumbai dossier through diplomatic channels and offered to share more information with Islamabad if needed.
"Pakistan has not given India any information as a reply to the dossier through diplomatic channels. All we have heard so far on the dossier is from the media," Mukherjee said.
"The least Pakistan could have done is to inform the Indian government about the probe through the Indian high commission in Islamabad," the minister added. He was speaking at a function at Murshidabad in West Bengal.
26/11 attacks: FBI wants to question Fahim Ansari
According to Mukherjee, India was ready to share more information with Pakistan if this was required to further its investigation into the 26/11 attacks.
Mukherjee's tough reminder to Pakistan appeared to contradict National Security Advisor (NSA) M K Narayanan's remarks in a TV interview that Islamabad seemed serious about probing the Mumbai terror attacks in a manner an investigating agency "should proceed".
Narayanan also said Pakistan had sent two sets of questions to India's dossier handed over to it, one of which has already been replied to.
"We have provided them with the dossier. They have reverted with certain queries, we have replied to their queries, and I presume that they will have more questions and we will assist them," Narayanan told interviewer Karan Thapar on the CNN-IBN show "Devil's Advocate".
"We have taken what I call a very conscious policy of saying if they wish us to assist in their investigations, we will do the utmost. What their response is going to be - from the kind of flip-flops that we have seen from time to time - I cannot say," he added.
Published: Dec. 4, 2008 at 1:20 AM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 4 (UPI)
Pakistan's major political parties have condemned the Mumbai terrorist massacre, but reject Indian charges it was masterminded by militants in their country.
In a show of oneness, party leaders issued a resolution saying they shared India's grief, the BBC reported. But they rejected "unsubstantiated allegations made in haste against Pakistan."
India, the report said, has not directly accused the Pakistani government but wants it to surrender about 20 people accused by Indian authorities of being linked to militant attacks over the years.
There have also been accusations by some Pakistani media and some lawmakers that the Mumbai attacks were a conspiracy by Hindu extremists to malign Pakistan.
One Indian newspaper quoted a self-styled security expert saying on a Pakistani news television show that the attacks were actually a plan by "Hindu Zionists" and "Western Zionists," including Israel's Mossad.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ending her visit to India, was scheduled to arrive in Pakistan Thursday.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff who arrived Wednesday, met President Asif Ali Zardari and other military leaders, urging Pakistan to extend cooperation with India in probing the Mumbai attacks
At Davos Jan28
Pakistan to release Mumbai attacks findings soon
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-37702820090128?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:12pm IST
By Emma Thomasson
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Pakistan will release details of an investigation into the Mumbai attacks "very soon", Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday.
"If there is anything substantive we will certainly share (it) with the world," he told Reuters in an interview in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where business and political leaders are attending the four-day World Economic Forum.
"Very soon, whatever the findings, we will come to the world," he said, adding that he first hoped for more cooperation from India.
India and Pakistan have been exchanging heated rhetoric since the Mumbai attacks that killed 179 people in November. India says they were carried out by Pakistani nationals and must have had support from Pakistani state agencies.
Gilani said relations had been improving with India before the attacks and he hoped for progress again.
"This incident has upset the situation. We should move forward ... we are resolved to fight terrorism and extremism," he said.
Pakistan has said that if any attackers were arrested, it would not send them to India for prosecution, even though this is what India would prefer.
Semi official Admission
Pakistani probe links Lashkar-e-Taiba with Mumbai attackers
Islamabad - The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Pakistan's own probe had linked militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with 10 fighters involved in last month's Mumbai attacks, a report which Islamabad has declined to comment on. A Pakistan...
Posted : Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:06:15 GMT
Author : DPA
Islamabad - The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Pakistan's own probe had linked militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with 10 fighters involved in last month's Mumbai attacks, a report which Islamabad has declined to comment on. A Pakistani security official told the WSJ that at least one top LeT commander, Zarar Shah, has admitted a role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Shah's admission is backed up by US intercepts of a phone call between Shah and one of the attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, one of the sites of terrorist strikes that left more than 170 people dead in India's financial hub.
At the Interior Ministry, a spokesman declined to comment on the report.
LeT was set up by Pakistani intelligence agencies for their proxy war in the Indian-administered part of divided Kashmir. It was banned after Pakistan joined international alliance against terrorism but it continued attacks inside India.
A second person familiar with the investigation said Shah told Pakistani interrogators that he was one of the key planners of the operation, and that he spoke with the attackers during the rampage to give them advice and keep them focused.
According to the militant leader the 10 gunmen were trained in Pakistan's part of mountainous Kashmir and then went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.
Before leaving, the attackers spent at least a few weeks in Karachi, a city of around 13 million population, where they were trained in urban combat to hone skills they would use in their assault, the WSJ report said.
Relations between India and Pakistan have soured since Mumbai carnage. New Delhi has demanded Pakistan to extradite the terror suspects to India. Islamabad has condemned the strikes but says it will take action against anyone according to its own laws if India shares evidence with it.
The disclosure could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects, the WSJ reported in its online edition.
Pakistan Clampdown
Pakistan extends crackdown on Mumbai suspects
By STEPHEN GRAHAM (about 12 Jan 2009)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan insisted it would help India to bring those behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks to justice, saying Thursday it had shut down extremist Web sites and suspected militant training camps, and detained 71 people in a deepening probe.
Still, a top Pakistani official said authorities needed to further investigate information about the attacks provided by archrival India before it could be used to prosecute suspects in court.
Islamabad is under pressure to clamp down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group that India blames for killing 164 people in its commercial capital in the siege and raising tension between South Asia's nuclear-armed neighbors.
Days after the November attacks, the U.N. Security Council declared that Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity in Pakistan, was merely a front for the outlawed militant organization.
On Thursday, Pakistan's Interior Ministry said 71 leaders of the groups had been arrested since then and that another 124 had been placed under surveillance and must register their every move with police.
"The restrictions are so tough. It's virtual detention," Interior Secretary Kamal Shah said.
Rehman Malik, the ministry's top official, said authorities also had closed 20 offices, 94 schools, two libraries and six Web sites linked to the charity. He said authorities had shut more than a dozen relief camps of the charity, some of which are alleged to be militant training grounds.
Among those detained was Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, along with Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, who India says planned the Mumbai attacks.
Malik repeated Islamabad's call for a joint investigation into the attacks and urged India to hand over more information to assist Pakistan's own probe.
"We are fully committed to help India in this investigation," he said at a news conference. "We have to prove to the world that India and Pakistan stand together against the terrorists because they are the common enemies."
On Jan. 5, India handed Pakistan a dossier of evidence including information on interrogations, weapons and data gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers.
India said the material proved Pakistan-based militants plotted and executed the attacks and has repeatedly insinuated that Pakistani intelligence agents were involved.
Pakistan denies that, though it has accepted that the one Mumbai gunman captured alive is a Pakistani and appears ready to accept that elements from within its borders were involved.
Pakistan has used Lashkar-e-Taiba in the past as a proxy force against India in their struggle over the divided Kashmir region. Washington says it has developed ties to al-Qaida and the West wants Pakistan to demonstrate that it has turned decisively against Islamic militancy.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in Mumbai on Thursday that Pakistan, a front-line ally also against the al-Qaida and the Taliban, must show "zero tolerance" for all terror networks on its soil. Miliband plans to visit Pakistan in the coming days.
Malik said Pakistani detectives would "inquire into" the information provided by India "to try to transform it to evidence, evidence which can stand the test of any court in the world and of course our own court of law."
He appeared to rule out handing over suspects to India, saying Pakistani laws allowed for the prosecution of citizens who committed crimes elsewhere.
India indicated has that it could accept a prosecution in Pakistan if Islamabad refused to hand over suspects.
"If that is not possible, there should at least be a fair trial of these fugitives in Pakistan," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Indian news channel Aaj Tak on Wednesday.
The United States expressed satisfaction at how the South Asian neighbors, who have fought three wars in the and had redeployed troops along their militarized border in recent weeks, were managing the fallout from the Mumbai bloodshed and urged more cooperation.
"We would like to see more the exchange of information about the Mumbai attacks so that you can get to the bottom of exactly who was responsible, see the entire plot, and hold all responsible for their actions, and make sure that in doing so you prevent any further plots from getting to the point of execution," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
In Washington, meanwhile, Pakistani Ambassador Husain Haqqani called on India to cooperate with Pakistan in what would be a joint investigation into the Mumbai attacks.
Working together, he said, would strengthen the war on terrorism and might provide access by Indian investigators to suspects held by Pakistan.
"The war against terrorism is our war, too," Haqqani said at the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank. The audience included retired U.S. diplomats, academics and journalists.
"There are homegrown extremists on both sides of the border," the veteran ambassador said.
Cooperating in the Mumbai inquiry might lay the groundwork of restoring improved relations between Pakistan and India. They are now heading downward, a goal of the attackers, Haqqani said.
Associated Press writer Sam Dolnick in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Disput on Blame
Disputing that account, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan told CNN last night: "We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it … that he is a Pakistani."
January2009 arrests
Mumbai Attack: 124 Suspects Held
12:33pm UK, Thursday January 15, 2009
Pakistan says it has arrested over 100 people in a crackdown on groups allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks, in which 164 people were killed.
Despite the announcement, interior ministry chief Rehman Malik dodged a question on whether Pakistan was admitting the plot was hatched on his country's soil.
India says a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar e Taiba, masterminded the November attack.
In the days afterward, the UN Security Council claimed Jamaat ud Dawa, a charity in Pakistan, was a front for the outlawed militant organisation.
In a press conference, Mr Malik said 124 people had been arrested, while authorities had taken steps against 20 offices, 87 schools, two libraries, seven religious schools, and a handful of other organisations and websites linked to the charity.
He also said authorities had shut several of the charity's relief camps, some of which have been alledgedly used as militant training grounds.
Political Structure in Pakistan
German federal minister of the interior Wolfgang Schauble, who held talks with home minister P Chidambaram and national security advisor M K Narayanan, admitted that it was not enough to just ban Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is behind the Mumbai terror attacks. ``Sometimes it is not sufficient to ban the organisation...,’’ he said, and added that a ``stable Pakistan is in everyone’s interest’’.
Mr Schauble, who was urged by India to visit this month, further acknowledged that there were instances where the intelligence network was not completely under the government of the day. ``Sometimes the government is not in full control of some parts of the intelligence network,’’ he said in response to a question on the ISI.
New Delhi’s assessment, which is shared by many countries, is that there are four power centres in Pakistan which include the civilian government, military, ISI and the jihadi elements. New Delhi believes that the civilian government is at the bottom of the power ladder.
Tensions
Pakistan’s elites continue to harbor three intense grievances that influence their behavior toward India. First, they still see India as an existential threat and regard New Delhi’s position on Kashmir to be intransient and unacceptable. Second, they fear the growing Indian presence in Afghanistan and see this as an effort by India to weaken Pakistan’s access and influence over its northern neighbor. Third, they believe that U.S. overtures of friendship are primarily based on Pakistan’s critical role in fighting the Taliban. They resent the fact that the Bush administration has made better relations with India a long- term priority and they fear that, over time, India’s size and its economic reach will put their own relationship with the United States on the back burner.
In turn, the Indians themselves suffer from continued paranoia about Pakistan’s intentions and its influence on India’s huge Muslim population, which is the second largest in the world after Indonesia. India’s border disputes with China have not yet been resolved and its leaders know it cannot exert its full weight in southwest Asia and Indian Ocean until and unless it resolves the crisis over Kashmir. This comes at a time when Indian domestic politics is in a state of turmoil and the left-wing political parties use all pretexts to undermine the government and demonize India’s close ties with the United Stat
Durrani sacked
Ali Durrani was sacked as a Pakistan goverment advisor about 5 hours after he gave a CNN interview. He admitted that there must have been some form of involvement of Pakistani players (not Gov authorised).
First reported 01/06/2009
Pakistan sacks National security adviser
Islamabad, Jan 7 (IANS) Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has sacked the country's National security
adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani, Geo TV reported Wednesday.Gilani said Durrani had given a statement to an Indian news
channel regarding Ajmal Kasab
Pakistani Nonstate Actors
The country is home to a wide array of different types of both indigenous and transnational jihadist actors. Because of the way the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate cultivated Islamist militants for use in India and Afghanistan, there are two main categories of groups. On one hand are the Taliban (the larger pool of militants) and on the other are the Kashmiri militants.
The Pakistani-based Taliban are subdivided into two broad categories, the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban. It is unlikely that the former group, which is engaged in the insurgency in Afghanistan, will shift their focus to the Indian-Pakistani frontier. In fact, conflict between India and Pakistan will provide an opportunity for the Afghan insurgents to make gains in the Afghan theater.
The Pakistani Taliban (those challenging the writ of the Pakistani state) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), by contrast, can be expected to participate in an India-Pakistan conflict significantly, even though at present these Pashtun militant forces are battling Pakistani troops.
The term Pakistani Taliban refers to a broad array of groups operating in various parts of the FATA/NWFP region. While there has been an attempt to bring them under a single umbrella called the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan lead by Baitullah Mehsud, these groups operate more or less independently in their respective regions across Pakistan’s Pashtun-majority areas.
<snip>
Most notoriously, these groups include Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which shot to prominence after the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, and has been much in the news since the Nov. 26 Mumbai attack. Founded by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, it is one of several such groups created by Pakistani intelligence. Jasih-e-Mohammed (JeM), led by Maulana Masood Azhar, is another such group.
Both have long had a relationship with the Pakistani state and al Qaeda.
General Gul
12.03.08
US asks UN to Declare Hamid Gul a Terrorist
Posted in Al Qaeda, China, India, JEM, Jaish e Muhammad, Jundullah, Pakistan, TNSM, TTP, Taliban, Waziristan at 7:21 pm by Thanos
The US is asking the UN to declare Hamid Gul and three other ex-ISI terrorists, this according to the International Times. Since Hamid Gul himself is a known liar, (see this interview two weeks after 9/11,) I wouldn’t put it beyond him to float this finely crafted newsbit on his own. So the 24 hour rule is in effect on this one, we will wait and see what the other papers say. The US Embassy is denying Hamid’s Tale:
The US has given four names of former ISI officials, including Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, to the UN Security Council to put them on the list of international terrorists.
Government of Pakistan is aware of this move, which is considered here by some as part of an international conspiracy to target the ISI, whose reformation has already been sought by Washington.
The US embassy in Islamabad claims to be completely unaware of this move while the foreign office spokesman also did not come up with any explanation on the matter despite being approached on Tuesday.
However, Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul confirmed to this correspondent that he was included in the list of those four or five former ISI officials whose names had been provided to the UN secretary-general by the US government to be included in the list of international terrorists.
Gul admitted that he had already met the foreign affairs secretary to discuss the issue. A Foreign Office source also told this correspondent that the issue had already been referred to the prime minister’s office but despite the lapse of a few weeks, no decision had been taken by the government so far. It is not clear whether or not Islamabad wants to pursue intense lobbying to stop this thing to happen.
A diplomatic source in Washington, however, told this correspondent that it would not be easy for the United States to get all these names enlisted in the list of terrorists because it would require the consent of the all the five permanent members of the Security Council.
Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq was contacted on Tuesday to give its response on the matter but The News has not heard anything from his side till the filing of this report on Wednesday night. Off the cuff, Sadiq said he had heard or read about this but was not sure about the case.
The Pakistan embassy in Washington is not in the know of this move. Pak envoy to US Hussain Haqqani, when contacted, said he had no comment to offer as no such thing was routed through the Pakistani embassy.
April 1987: Hamid Gul Becomes Head of ISI
Edit event
Gen. Hamid Gul is made head of Pakistan’s ISI. General Gul is a favorite of CIA Station Chief Milt Bearden and US ambassador to Pakistan Arnie Raphel, who view him as an ally and a potential national leader of Pakistan. According to Bearden, however, he will later (sometime after 1990) turn against the US.
Evidence will later appear that in the late 1990s Gul is somehow able to give the Taliban advanced warning of US attempts to assassinate bin Laden with missile strikes . In 2004, allegations will appear in the US media that Gul was a key participant in the 9/11 plot and“bin Laden’s master planner”
Bannu/Peshawar
BANNU/PESHAWAR: Four people were killed and five others sustained injuries when the US drones targeted a house in Janikhel area of Bannu district in the wee hours of Wednesday. The attack marked the first-ever US missile strike in the settled areas of the country.
Of those killed in the attack on the house of a local, Paran, in Zindi Alikhel area of Janikhel Union Council, is stated to be Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member of the al-Qaeda network. The report, however, could not be confirmed from official sources.
If the reports of the death of Abdullah Azam al-Saudi in the missile attack prove to be correct, he would be the second high-profile al-Qaeda operative killed in the US missile strikes inside the Pakistani territory.
Bannu District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Alam Shinwari told The News from his office in the southern district that the missile hit the house of a local in Janikhel around 3:45 am, killing four persons and injuring five others.
The owner of the house, he added, was among those wounded in the attack. Janikhel had become a de facto tribal area for the past several months after militants spilled over there from the North and South Waziristan agencies as well as from the Bannu Frontier Region. The area had almost become a ‘no-go area’ for the police.
According to some reports, three among those killed in the attack were foreigners, including two Uzbeks and a Saudi national. Some of those wounded were also said to be foreigners but their names could not be ascertained.
Reacting strongly to the US attack in Bannu, the MPA hailing from Janikhel, Adnan Wazir, announced to submit an adjournment motion in the legislature against the air strike. “No one among those killed in the attack was a foreigner nor were they terrorists. Innocent locals were killed in the attack, which is a violation of the borders of the country,” Adnan Wazir said
About ISI
Constitutionally, the agency is acountable to the prime minister, says Hassan Abbas, research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. But most officers in the ISI are from the army, so that is where their loyalties and interests lie, he says. Experts say until the end of 2007, as army chief and president, Musharraf exercised firm control over the intelligence agency. But by late 2008 it was not clear how much control the new civilian government in Pakistan had over the agency. In July 2008, the Pakistani government announced the ISI will be brought under the control of the interior ministry, but revoked its decision (BBC) within hours. Bruce Riedel, an expert on South Asia at the Brookings Institution, says the civilian leadership has "virtually no control" (PDF) over the army and the ISI. In September 2008, army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani replaced the ISI chief picked by Musharraf with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Some experts say the move signals that Kiyani is consolidating his control over the intelligence agency by appointing his man at the top. In November 2008, the government, in another move to rein in the agency, disbanded ISI's political wing, which politicians say was responsible for interfering in domestic politics. Some experts saw it as a move by the army, which faced much criticism when Musharraf was at the helm, to distance itself from politics.
"I do not accept the thesis that the ISI is a rogue organization," Milam says. "It's a disciplined army unit that does what it's told, though it may push the envelope sometimes." With a reported staff of ten thousand, ISI is hardly monolithic: "Like in any secret service, there are rogue elements," says Frederic Grare, a South Asia expert and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He points out that many of the ISI's agents have ethnic and cultural ties to Afghan insurgents, and naturally sympathize with them.
ISI Involvement possible
By ZAHID HUSSAIN, MATTHEW ROSENBERG and PETER WONACOTT
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123068308893944123.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's own investigation of terror attacks in Mumbai has begun to show substantive links between the 10 gunmen and an Islamic militant group that its powerful spy agency spent years supporting, say people with knowledge of the probe.
At least one top leader of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or "Army of the Pure," captured in a raid earlier this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, has confessed the group's involvement in the attack as India and the U.S. have alleged, according to a senior Pakistani security official.
The disclosure could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks, which left 171 dead in India, originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects. That raises difficult and potentially destabilizing issues for the country's new civilian government, its military and the spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence -- which is conducting interrogations of militants it once cultivated as partners.
[Pakistani protesters] Associated Press
Pakistani protesters burn an Indian flag during a rally in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday. A probe could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks originated within its borders.
Pakistani security officials say a top Lashkar commander, Zarar Shah, has admitted a role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation, according to the security official, who declined to be identified discussing the investigatio
Pakistan ISI Backtrack
Pak backtracks, to send ISI rep now and not the chief
Posted: Nov 28, 2008 at 1013 hrs IST
Islamabad Pakistan backtracked on sending ISI chief Shuja Pasha to India in connection with the probe into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and instead deputed a representative of the spy agency for the task.
The decision was taken within hours of Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani agreeing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's demand to fly the ISI chief to Delhi.
At a meeting here early morning on Saturday, President Asif Ali Zardari, Gilani and Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani decided against sending Pasha to India which suspected involvement of Pakistani elements in the Mumbai terror attacks that left over 160 dead.
The unscheduled meeting held at the presidency continued well past 1.30 a.m.
"A representative of the ISI will visit India, instead of its Director General Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, to help in investigating the Mumbai terrorism incident," a spokesman for the Prime Minister's House said.
Gilani had yesterday agreed to send the ISI chief to New Delhi for sharing information on the coordinated terror attacks on Mumbai when spoke to Singh over phone.
The Pakistan Prime Minister had telephoned Singh to condemn the attacks and offer Islamabad's assistance in investigating the incident.
Singh wanted the ISI chief to visit Delhi to put before him information about the possible involvement of Pakistani elements, including those belonging to militant outfit Lashkar-e Toiba (LeT), in the terror strikes.
Separate statements issued by the Prime Minister's House and the Foreign Office had earlier said the ISI chief would travel to India in connection with the probe.
The statement from the Prime Minister's House had said the "ISI chief will visit India at the earliest" after modalities were worked out by both governments.
Gilani's decision was criticised by the opposition PML-N, PML-Q and Jamaat-e-Islami. Analysts in India and Pakistan had also questioned whether the civilian government led by Gilani's Pakistan People's Party would be able to convince the powerful military to send the ISI chief to India.
Rogue elements
Alleged :
ISI link to 9-11: An Indian Airlines plane was hijacked from Kathmandu to Kandahar. India had to release two terrorists in return for the passengers - Maulana Mazood Azhar and Ahmed Umar Syed Sheikh.
ISI Chief Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed had Syed Sheikh wire $100,000 to Mohammad Atta, one of the hijackers on 9-11. Later Syed Sheikh was to become infamous as the killer of Daniel Pearl. He turned himself in to an ISI brigadier on Feb. 5, 2002, a full week before his "arrest" was announced.
--------------------------
The first indication and case of an end-to-end collboration of Terrorists, Taliban, ISI and Pakistan Government became visible during the Indian Airlines hijacking. In April of 2001, Pakistani diplomat Mohammed Arshad Cheema, - first secretary at the embassy in Kathmandu - was arrested on Thursday with 16 kg of RDX in Kathmandu. He was also the guy who met the IA 814 hijackers just before they boarded the plane from Kathmandu.
The first secretary carried a briefcase into the departure concourse. The briefcase went unchecked because Cheema and company used their diplomatic immunity to avoid frisking or rummaging by airport officials. One of the Pakistani officials handed over the briefcase to a person who, it was later ascertained, was one of the hijackers of IC 814. It is presumed that the briefcase contained arms and ammunition the hijackers used to commandeer the flight.
Possible conclusions
High-level meetings between US intelligence and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have already been held at different levels to devise plans to cripple the support systems of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Two prominent names came under discussion at these meetings: retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul and a former ISI official, retired Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja. Gul, a former head of the ISI, is suspected of providing political and moral support to the Taliban-led resistance in Afghanistan.
Hijackers Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 from Katmandu to Kandahar & Demanded the Indian government release three Pakistani terrorists from prison in exchange for the airline hostages. After an eight-day stand-off, New Delhi agreed to free Ahmed Omar Sayeed Sheikh among the three.
Sheikh turns out to be one of Osama bin Laden's chief money men. About a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, Sheikh wired $100,000 from Pakistan to Atta from an account in the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai. Sheikh was spotted in Islamabad at the time the money was transferred.
The $100,000 covered the hijackers' flight-school tuition and airfare, as well as living expenses. Sheikh picked up an unspent residual of more than $25,000 from Atta and three other hijackers in Dubai right before the attacks, then fled back to Karachi, Pakistan.
The 28-year-old Sheikh is a leader in Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (J-e-M), an Islamic militant group. Its founder, Mohammad Masood Azhar, aka Maulana Masood, is closely linked to bin Laden.
According to accounts in both The Times of India and India Today, former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad instructed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta.
The Times says Ahmad lost his job only after India shared with the FBI evidence showing a link between the general and Sheikh's wiring of funds to Atta.
The Indian government thinks Pakistan's military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has sponsored and protected Azhar and Sheikh. it accuses ISI of sponsoring the Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament. "Azhar is considered to be a pampered terrorist of Pakistan's ISI," said The Press Trust of India.
India Abroad says ISI has been "instrumental" in recruiting terrorists for training camps in Kashmir.
J-e-M's accounts were frozen not long after Dennis M. Lormel, director of FBI's financial crimes unit, confirmed the $100,000 transaction, if not the source & not identifying who "they" were.
ISI involvement
The involvement of Pakistan's Intelligence agency ISI with terror outfits is now public knowledge. On July 12, 2008, CIA Deputy Director Stephen R Kappes made a visit to Pakistan to confront the top Pakistani civilian and military leaders with hard evidence to show the close involvement between ISI and the terror outfits.
The assessment report of the CIA held this nexus responsible for surge of violence in Afghanistan, including the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Further, ISI was suspected of leaking crucial information to the terror outfits with regard to planned attacks on their hideouts in border areas.
According to American press reports, the CIA officials welcomed this hard line on ISI and it was at this stage that their proposal to allow American forces to target terror hideouts inside Pakistan without informing the ISI received presidential clearance.
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Possible evidence
Anti-Indian: Terrorist groups that operate with the alleged support of the Pakistani military and the intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and the Harakat ul-Mujahedeen (HuM). This Backgrounder profiles these organizations which have been active in Kashmir;
Speculative
India has proof ISI trained Mumbai
Nidhi Razdan
Senior Anchor and Senior Special
Thursday, December 04, 2008 5:46 PM (New Delhi)
More than a week after the Mumbai attack, sources have told NDTV that India has proof that the ISI mastermined the Mumbai attack. Sources in fact say that they are 100% certain that the attack was authorised by Pakistan's intelligence agency. They say the attack was very well organised, with sophisticated equipment and logistics.
Sources say India has specific evidence on the ISI's role -- the names of the ISI trainers and the names of the places where the terrorists were trained. In fact sources say it doesn't appear that the terrorists simply took a chance and hijacked an Indian boat to come to Mumbai. There was definitely more planning than that.
Sources say that given the close links between the ISI and the army, they find it hard to imagine that the army wasn't aware of this plot. But here's a crucial point. They say they don't believe President Asif Ali Zardari's civilian government is involved. In fact they described Zardari as irrelevant -- even as a power tussle takes place between him and the army-ISI combine.
Sources say the Mumbai attack could have been one way of the army and the ISI reasseerting that they call the shots and that there could be a strategy by the army to take over power if tensions with India significantly rise.
The other important information is that Admiral Mike Mullen, the head of the US joint chiefs of staff, has told Islamabad they have to arrest Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafeez Sayeed.
USA Cautious
U.S. intelligence officials, however, were more cautious in their interpretation of the evidence. Although U.S. analysts acknowledged historical ties between Lashkar and ISI, as well as more recent contacts between militants and Pakistani intelligence officers, they said they were not convinced that Pakistan (ed: Government) supported the attacks in any significant way.
"Even if there were contacts between ISI and Lashkar-i-Taiba, it's not the same as saying there was ISI support," said a U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official would not dismiss the possibility that further evidence would reveal active ISI involvement but said: "The evidence we've seen so far does not get you there."
ISI role in 26/11 suspected, Islamabad told
6 Jan 2009, 0322 hrs IST, ET Bureau
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NEW DELHI: India on Monday confronted Pakistan with tell-tale evidence of the complicity of its citizens and its semi-rogue ISI in the attack on Mumbai and, once again, asked Islamabad to hand over 26/11 suspects, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Lashkar-e-Toiba leaders Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah among others.
Pakistan ambassador Shahid Mallik was summoned to South Block by foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon to hand over proof collected and corroborated by various investigating agencies.
New Delhi made it known to Islamabad that it suspected the role of ISI in the Mumbai terror plot. “The relationship between Lashkar-e-Toiba and the ISI has been historical. It is a very fine line to draw between state actors and non-state actors. Whoever is responsible has to pay,” Mr Shivshankar Menon said. “We will follow evidence wherever it leads. It is hard to believe something of this scale, which amounts to commando operation, would occur without anyone in the establishment knowing. We are not going to say this is where the line ends. We have to continue with the investigations,” Mr Menon added. Sources said former DG of Pakistan’s ISI, Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, knew about the plot to attack Mumbai by the marine jihadis.
The evidence includes confession of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani in the Mumbai terror strikes nabbed, records of GPS and satellite phones used by attackers and transcript of conversations between attackers and their handlers in Pakistan and details of weapons recovered from sites of the terror attacks. India has also conveyed to Pakistan that Amir’s DNA sample is available.
Intelligence Thinking
Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has long faced accusations of meddling in the affairs of its neighbors. A range of officials inside and outside Pakistan have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and terrorist groups in recent years. In autumn 2006, a leaked report by a British Defense Ministry think tank charged, "Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism—whether in London on 7/7, or in Afghanistan, or Iraq." In June 2008, Afghan officials accused Pakistan's intelligence service of plotting a failed assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai; shortly thereafter, they implied the ISI's involvement in a July 2008 attack on the Indian embassy. Indian officials also blamed the ISI for the bombing of the Indian embassy. Pakistani officials have denied such a connection. In an October 2006 interview, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said some retired ISI operatives could be abetting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, but he denied any active links. Pakistan's government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism, citing as evidence its cooperation in the "war on terror," in which it has taken significant losses both politically and on the battlefield.
"The ISI probably would not define what they've done in the past as 'terrorism,'" says William Milam, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.
Shuja Nawaz,author of the book Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within, says the ISI "has certainly lost control" of Kashmiri militant groups. According to Nawaz, some of the groups trained by the ISI to fuel insurgency in Kashmir have been implicated in bombings and attacks within Pakistan, therefore making them army targets.
Aid to others
Not only are the U.S. and Pakistani governments not executing the strategy that U.S. forces such as the 82nd Airborne gradually developed on the Afghan side of the border, but elements of the Pakistani government—especially the ISI—are actively supporting groups like the Taliban, just as they did during the 1990s. Current- and former-ISI officials help train some Taliban and other insurgents destined for Afghanistan and Kashmir. United States and other NATO officials have also uncovered several instances in which the ISI provided intelligence to insurgents, including tipping them off about the location and movement of Afghan and coalition forces, which undermined several anti-Taliban military operations.
“Al-Qaeda has been effective as a force multiplier by improving the capacity of insurgent groups.” This includes helping indigenous insurgents make more-sophisticated improvised explosive devices, instructing them in fund-raising techniques to create an income stream from the international jihadi philanthropic community, and conducting more-effective information operations using the Internet and a range of media outlets. One of the most-significant insurgent groups, led by Sirajuddin Haqqani and able to execute attacks deep into Afghanistan, has close links with Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), from which it receives aid.
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=18388
Info Trail LET & ISI
Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Pakistan-based militant group, had the backing of the Islamic nation’s spy agency ISI, which shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection to it in the Mumbai terror attacks, a media report said on Monday.
American intelligence and counterterrorism officials were quoted by the New York Times as saying that LeT has quietly gained strength in recent years with the assistance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has allowed the group to train and raise money while other militants have been under siege.
Officials said though there is no hard evidence yet to link the spy agency to the Mumbai attacks, ISI shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it.
The ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it, the officials told the paper, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks.
“People are having to go back and relook at all the connections,” one American counterterrorism official, who was among several officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to the paper, was quoted as saying.
American and Indian officials believe that one senior Lashkar commander in particular, Zarrar Shah, is one of the group’s primary liaisons to the ISI. “He’s a central character in this plot,” one American official said.
As a result of the assault India’s financial hub, American counterterrorism and military officials say they are reassessing their view of Lashkar and believe it to be more capable and a greater threat than they had previously recognized. Pakistani officials have denied any government connection to the siege on 26-29 November, in which nearly 200 people were killed in Mumbai.
See Planning:
It appears some planning/support was made in Bangladesh
UN chief to announce Bhutto probe
Sami Zubeiri
February 4, 2009 - 7:34PM
UN chief Ban Ki-moon was set on Wednesday to announce a UN probe into the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto during a flying visit to Islamabad, the foreign ministry said.
Ban's visit - his first since taking office two years ago - after a stopover in Afghanistan comes two days after unidentified gunmen kidnapped a top UN official in southwest Pakistan two days ago.
It also comes amid rampant unrest in Pakistan's border areas, with Taliban rebels disrupting a crucial NATO supply route into Afghanistan and government forces engaged in bloody fighting in the northwest Swat valley.
The foreign ministry says Ban's talks will focus on the expected formation of a UN commission to investigate the December 2007 assassination of Bhutto, a two-time prime minister who was killed at a campaign rally.
"He's arriving in the afternoon. He will meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Then he will call on President Asif Ali Zardari and attend a banquet before leaving for India tonight," a foreign ministry official told AFP.
"He is expected to announce the formation of a commission to investigate Benazir's killing," the official added.
Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27, 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.
The Pakistani government and US officials accused tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud of plotting the attack, although he denies the charge.
Pakistan asked the United Nations to establish a commission to investigate the slaying.
In December, a spokesman for Ban said that the UN leader hoped a commission could be established soon but further consultation with Pakistan was needed to examine its structure, "including its scope and mandate".
The UN secretary general has called for the "immediate and safe release" of John Solecki, the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in the city of Quetta who was snatched at gunpoint on Monday.
Pakistan condemned the "dastardly terrorist act" and launched a manhunt to find Solecki, but officials say they have no idea who was responsible.
Criminal gangs, rebels and Islamist militants are known to operate in the area.
Ban is also expected to discuss various regional and international issues, including the situation in Afghanistan and the Mumbai attacks in November last year, the foreign office said.
New Delhi blamed the attacks in Mumbai, which left 165 people dead, on the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba which is active in Indian-ruled Kashmir, but the Pakistan-based organisation has denied responsibility.
Pakistan says the lone surviving Mumbai gunman, now in Indian custody, is a Pakistani citizen but has insisted the attackers were "non-state actors".
In a related issue, Ban is expected to discuss the implementation of a UN Security Council sanctions committee statement accrediting four members of LeT and a charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely viewed as its political arm.
Vowing to "fulfil its international obligations," Pakistan detained scores of Dawa officials and ordered its assets frozen after the UN Security Council in December moved to list the charity as a terror group.
The 60-hour siege in India's financial capital in late November has badly strained relations between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan.
© 2009 AFP
Security Council
SC/9527
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
SECURITY COUNCIL AL-QAIDA AND TALIBAN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE ADDS NAMES OF FOUR INDIVIDUALS TO CONSOLIDATED LIST, AMENDS ENTRIES OF THREE ENTITIES
[Ed - LET names & organisations named]
On 10 December 2008, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the addition of the four entries specified below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations
QI.S.263.08. Name: 1: MUHAMMAD 2: SAEED 3: na 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: 5 Jun. 1950 POB: Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan Good quality a.k.a.: a) Hafiz Muhammad b) Hafiz Saeed c) Hafiz Mohammad Sahib d) Hafez Mohammad Saeed e) Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed f) Hafiz Mohammad Sayid g) Tata Mohammad Syeed h) Mohammad Sayed Low quality a.k.a.: Hafiz Ji Nationality: Pakistani Passport no.: na National identification no.: Pakistani national identification number 3520025509842-7 Address: House No. 116E, Mohalla Johar, Lahore, Tehsil, Lahore City, Lahore District, Pakistan, (location as at May 2008) Listed on: 10 Dec. 2008 Other information: Muhammad Saeed is the leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (listed under permanent reference number QE.L.118.05.).
QI.L.264.08. Name: 1: ZAKI-UR-REHMAN 2: LAKHVI 3: na 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: 30 Dec. 1960 POB: Okara, Pakistan Good quality a.k.a.: a) Zakir Rehman Lakvi b) Zaki Ur-Rehman Lakvi c) Kaki Ur-Rehman d) Zakir Rehman e) Abu Waheed Irshad Ahmad Arshad Low quality a.k.a.: Chachajee Nationality: Pakistani Passport no.: na National identification no.: Pakistani national identification number 61101-9618232-1 Address: a) Barahkoh, P.O. DO, Tehsil and District Islamabad, Pakistan, (location as at May 2008) b) Chak No. 18/IL, Rinala Khurd, Tehsil Rinala Khurd, District Okara, Pakistan, (previous location) Listed on: 10 Dec. 2008 Other information: Chief of operations of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (listed under permanent reference number QE.L.118.05.).
QI.A.265.08. Name: 1: HAJI 2: MUHAMMAD 3: ASHRAF 4: na
Title: na Designation: na DOB: 1 Mar. 1965 POB: na Good quality a.k.a.: Haji M. Ashraf Low quality a.k.a.: na Nationality: Pakistani Passport no.: Pakistani passport number A-374184 National identification no.: na Address: na Listed on: 10 Dec. 2008 Other information: Chief of finance of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (listed under permanent reference number QE.L.118.05.).
QI.B.266.08. Name: 1: MAHMOUD 2: MOHAMMAD 3: AHMED 4: BAHAZIQ
Title: na Designation: na DOB: a) 17 Aug. 1943 b) 1943 c) 1944 POB: India Good quality a.k.a.: a) Bahaziq Mahmoud b) Abu Abd al-‘Aziz c) Abu Abdul Aziz d) Shaykh Sahib Low quality a.k.a.: na Nationality: Saudi Arabian Passport no.: na National identification no.: Saudi Arabian national identification number 4-6032-0048-1 Address: na Listed on: 10 Dec. 2008 Other information: Financier of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (listed under permanent reference number QE.L.118.05.). Has served as the leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in Saudi Arabia.
Also, on 10 December 2008, the Committee approved the changes specified with strike-through and underline in the three entries below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
QE.L.118.05. Name: LASHKAR-E-TAYYIBA
A.k.a.: a) Lashkar-e-Toiba b) Lashkar-i-Taiba c) al Mansoorian d) al Mansooreen e) Army of the Pure f) Army of the Righteous g) Army of the Pure and Righteous h) Paasban-e-Kashmir i) Paasban-i-Ahle-Hadith j) Pasban-e-Kashmir k) Pasban-e-Ahle-Hadith l) Paasban-e-Ahle-Hadis m) Pashan-e-ahle Hadis n) Lashkar e Tayyaba o) LET p) Jamaat-ud-Dawa q) JUD r) Jama,at al-Dawa s) Jamaat ud-Daawa t) Jamaat ul-Dawah u) Jamaat-ul-Dawa v) Jama,at-i-Dawat w) Jamaiat-ud-Dawa x) Jama,at-ud-Da,awah y) Jama,at-ud-Da,awa z) Jamaati-ud-Dawa F.k.a.: na Address: na Listed on: 2 May 2005 (amended on 3 Nov. 2005, 10 Dec. 2008) Other information: na
QE.A.5.01. Name: AL RASHID TRUST
A.k.a.: a) Al-Rasheed Trust b) Al Rasheed Trust c) Al-Rashid Trust d) Aid Organization of the Ulema, Pakistan e) Al Amin Welfare Trust f) Al Amin Trust g) Al Ameen Trust h) Al-Ameen Trust i) Al Madina Trust j) Al-Madina Trust F.k.a.: na Address: a) Kitas Ghar, Nazimabad 4, Dahgel-Iftah, Karachi, Pakistan b) Jamia Maajid, Sulalman Park, Melgium Pura, Lahore, Pakistan c) Office Dha’rbi-M’unin, Opposite Khyber Bank, Abbottabad Road, Mansehra, Pakistan d) Office Dha’rbi-M’unin ZR Brothers, Katcherry Road, Chowk Yadgaar, Peshawar, Pakistan e) Office Dha’rbi-M’unin, Rm No. 3, Moti Plaza, Near Liaquat Bagh, Muree Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan f) Office Dha’rbi-M’unin, Top Floor, Dr. Dawa Khan Dental Clinic Surgeon, Main Baxae, Mingora, Swat, Pakistan g) Kitab Ghar, Darul Ifta Wal Irshad, Nazimabad No. 4, Karachi, Pakistan, Phone 6683301; Phone 0300-8209199; Fax 6623814 h) 302b-40, Good Earth Court, Opposite Pia Planitarium, Block 13a, Gulshan -l Igbal, Karachi, Pakistan; Phone 4979263 i) 617 Clifton Center, Block 5, 6th Floor, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan; Phone 587-2545 j) j) 605 Landmark Plaza, 11 Chundrigar Road, Opposite Jang Building, Karachi, Pakistan; Phone 2623818-19 k) Jamia Masjid, Sulaiman Park, Begum Pura, Lahore, Pakistan; Phone 042-6812081 Listed on: 6 Oct. 2001 (amended on 21 Oct. 2008, 10 Dec. 2008) Other information: Headquarters are in Pakistan. Operations in Afghanistan: Herat Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar Sherif. Also operations in Kosovo, Chechnya. Has two account numbers (No. 05501741 and No. 06500138) in Habib Bank Ltd. (Foreign Exchange Branch), Pakistan. Involved in the financing of Al-Qaida and the Taliban. Until 21 Oct. 2008, this entity appeared also as "Aid Organization of the Ulema, Pakistan" under permanent reference number QE.A.73.02., listed on 24 Apr. 2002 and amended on 25 Jul. 2006. Based on information confirming that the two entries Al Rashid Trust (QE.A.5.01.) and Aid Organization of the Ulema, Pakistan (QE.A.73.02.) refer to the same entity, the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee decided on 21 Oct. 2008 to consolidate the relevant information contained in both entries in the present entry.
QE.A.121.05. Name: AL-AKHTAR TRUST INTERNATIONAL
A.k.a.: a) Al Akhtar Trust b) Al-Akhtar Medical Centre c) Akhtarabad Medical Camp d) Pakistan Relief Foundation e) Pakistani Relief Foundation f) Azmat-e-Pakistan Trust g) Azmat Pakistan Trust F.k.a.: na Address: a) ST-1/A, Gulsahn-e-Iqbal, Block 2, Karachi, 25300, Pakistan b) Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Block 12, Karachi, Pakistan Listed on: 17 Aug. 2005 (amended on 10 Dec. 2008) Other information: Regional offices in Pakistan: Bahawalpur, Bawalnagar, Gilgit, Islamabad, Mirpur Khas, Tando-Jan-Muhammad. Akhtarabad Medical Camp is in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan.
The Committee’s List is updated regularly on the basis of relevant information provided by Member States and regional organizations. This is the twenty-fourth update of the List in 2008. An updated List is accessible on the Committee’s website at the following URL: http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/consolist.shtml.
U.S. intelligence officials, however, were more cautious in their interpretation of the evidence. Although U.S. analysts acknowledged historical ties between Lashkar and ISI, as well as more recent contacts between militants and Pakistani intelligence officers, they said they were not convinced that Pakistan (ed: Government) supported the attacks in any significant way.
"Even if there were contacts between ISI and Lashkar-i-Taiba, it's not the same as saying there was ISI support," said a U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official would not dismiss the possibility that further evidence would reveal active ISI involvement but said: "The evidence we've seen so far does not get you there."
Indian and U.S. investigators have identified Yusuf Muzammil, a Lashkar-i-Taiba leader, as the mastermind behind the attacks, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Pakistan to hand him and other suspects over. Pakistan denies any involvement in the attacks and has called on India to divulge its evidence.
The attacks, which left more than 170 people dead and more than 230 wounded, came as India and Pakistan appeared to be making headway in peace talks.
Indian newspapers reported this week that ISI helped train the gunmen. But in comments to reporters Friday, newly appointed Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram did not specifically mention the agency or Pakistan. "There is ample evidence to show the source of the attacks were clearly linked to organizations which have in the past been identified as behind terrorist attacks in India," Chidambaram said.
Pakistan has agreed to a 48-hour timetable set by India and the United States to formulate a plan to take action against Lashkar and to arrest at least three Pakistanis who Indian authorities say are linked to the assaults, according to a high-ranking Pakistani official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, said India has also asked Pakistan to arrest and hand over Lashkar commander Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhwi and former ISI director Hamid Gul in connection with the investigation.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who has expressed his country's solidarity with India, is expected to review plans by his nation's top military and intelligence officials and follow through on India's demands, the official said.
Mumbai attacks could happen in the US: FBI
Feb 23, 2009
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Attacks that killed 172 people in Mumbai in November could happen in the United States, FBI Director Robert Mueller warned in a speech here.
"How many other cities around the world could fall prey to such an attack? How many cities here, in the United States?" Mueller asked Monday in a presentation to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Mueller, who took over the Federal Bureau of Investigation just days before September 11 2001, said the Mumbai attacks showed that terrorists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons to maximize their impact."
"It again raises the question of whether a similar attack could happen in Seattle or San Diego, Miami or Manhattan," he said.
Mueller added that although Al-Qaeda remains a threat to the United States, US officials "must also focus on less well-known terrorist groups, as well as homegrown terrorists. And we must consider extremists from visa-waiver countries, who are merely an e-ticket away from the United States."
The FBI is "increasingly concerned with pockets of people around the world that identify with Al-Qaeda and its ideology. Some may have little or no actual contact with Al-Qaeda."
He also warned of homegrown threats: "A man from Minneapolis became what we believe to be the first US citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing. The attack occurred last October in northern Somalia, but it appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota," Mueller said.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0116/p99s03-duts.html
The US is working to increase the cooperation between India and Pakistan, indicates The Wall Street Journal. The Journal writes that the CIA has been serving as a go-between for the two countries in order to better resolve the consequences of the Mumbai attacks.
A senior Pakistani official said significant progress has been made in the investigation of the attacks. A report on Pakistan's findings was sent to India through the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency last week, the official said.
New Delhi and Islamabad have mainly been communicating through the CIA, the official said. The chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Shuja Ahmed Pasha, met with a top CIA official this month in connection with Pakistan's investigation, the official said.
CIA Director Michael Hayden on Thursday confirmed the CIA's efforts. "We've had some success in that regard," he said. "We've had a long, and frankly in many ways very profitable, relationship with ISI, and we've tried to use our friendship with the service to help this move in the right direction."
The "right" direction is what is in the U.S. government's interest, he said, describing that as: "Who did this? Why? Don't let it happen again. And bring justice to those who have done it."
Assistance
Officials Acknowledge CIA Aid to India, Pakistan in Wake of Mumbai Attacks
U.S. and Pakistani officials tell FOX News that the CIA helped prevent an escalation of hostilities after the November terror attacks in Mumbai, India, by passing intelligence back-and-forth between the neighboring nations.
FOXNews.com Monday, February 16, 2009
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden and his No. 2, Steve Kappes, had multiple conversations with Pakistani government officials inside the U.S. following the November attacks in Mumbai, India, in hopes of easing tensions between the hostile neighbors, a counterterrorism official told FOX News on Monday.
The official, who is familiar with U.S. intelligence activities in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack, said the U.S. intelligence community was deeply concerned that the tensions between the rival nuclear nations would escalate.
The official also acknowledged that the sharing of intelligence between the countries -- through the CIA acting as facilitator -- allowed Pakistan to be forthcoming about the linkage between the 10 men -- nine of whom were killed in the attack --to Lashkar-i-Taiba, a terror group that wants the disputed territory of Kashmir to be controlled by Pakistan.
The role the CIA played was first laid out on Monday in The Washington Post, which reported sources saying the CIA "orchestrated back-channel intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan" that helped the two sides "overcome mutual suspicions and paved the way for Islamabad's announcement last week acknowledging that some of the planning for the attack had occurred on Pakistani soil."
The intelligence included "sophisticated communications intercepts and an array of physical evidence detailing how the gunmen and their supporters planned and executed their three-day killing spree in the Indian port city," the Post reported. The CIA and FBI also helped by vetting the details and using its own sources to fill in the blanks, the newspaper said.
A Pakistani official told FOX News that Pakistan shared evidence with U.S. intelligence services, and the CIA played a key role in assisting the Pakistani and Indian intelligence services and acting as a bridge between them.
The two nations are critical players in the region. India's large population, democratic government and emerging economy have made it a strong U.S. ally for years. In the last administration, Pakistan took on a critical role for U.S. anti-terror efforts in part because of its large border with Afghanistan.
Hayden told FOX News last month that Lashkar-i-Taiba and Al Qaeda are at a "merge point." He said attacks like the one in Mumbai, which ended with 170 dead and more than 300 wounded, are very low-tech but extremely destructive, and indicated the terror group's activities must be closely watched.
"It certainly is eye-opening in terms of looking at what was done there by really a small group of people, with very basic weapons," he said. "So it is something that you should pay us to worry about and try to predict, for the future."
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Police Commissioner Ray Kelly warned Friday of possible copycat attacks in the wake of last week's massacre in Mumbai, India.
"In many ways, the city of Mumbai bears striking similarities to New York," Kelly told reporters. "It is the country's financial capital, a densely populated cultural metropolis and a hub for the media ... all of these features make it a compelling target."
On November 26, a group of armed gunmen conducted a series of coordinated attacks throughout the Indian city, leaving 179 people dead and hundreds more injured.
Kelly's remarks came at a news conference where he and the department's chief intelligence officers issued security recommendations to New York hotels and other "soft targets."
Lt. Mario Rivera, of the department's intelligence division, recommended hotels have an emergency action plan, take protective measures and be vigilant of suspicious behavior.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200901041504.htm
Sunday, January 4, 2009
FBI hands over evidence over Mumbai attack to Pak: Report
London (PTI): The FBI has given to Pakistan evidence amassed by it on involvement of elements based in that country
in the Mumbai strikes, including on the LeT handlers' warning to the attackers about the arrival of Indian
commandos while watching the mayhem live on TV, a media report here said on Sunday.
Stating that evidence is growing to prove that the Mumbai strikes were orchestrated by militants based in Pakistan,
'The Sunday Times' reported that Zarar Shah, a communications specialist of Lashkar-e-Toiba, has admitted under
interrogation in Pakistan that he advised the terrorists by phone as the attacks unfolded.
Controllers in Pakistan watched live television and warned the gunmen of the arrival of Indian commandos, the
report said, citing evidence amassed by the FBI and handed over to the Pakistani government.
The FBI had decoded Skype calls over the internet that were made between the gunmen in two five-star hotels and a
Jewish centre in Mumbai with their LeT controllers in Pakistan, identified as Shah, Abu Hamza and Abu Qafa, it
said.
Talking in colloquial Punjabi, the controllers repeatedly told the attackers "Aag lagao" ("light the fire"), which
has been interpreted in India as a way of maximising casualties, the paper said.
During the conversation, the men were also instructed to kill all the Israelis held captive in the Jewish hostel,
but to spare all the Muslims, it said.
Shah revealed that the 10 assailants were trained in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and then travelled by boat from
Karachi to Mumbai. He implicated several other Lashkar men.
According to the report, Islamabad rejected the alleged FBI evidence and dismissed India's contention about close
ties between LeT and ISI.
The messages from Mumbai
04/12/2008 11:00:00 PM GMT
The horrible carnage in Mumbai is sending depressing messages about the realities of the present age of terror.
By Dr. Muqtedar Khan
I lived about a mile from the Taj. I worked for an engineering firm and freelanced as a copywriter for advertising agencies in Mumbai. Every time I got a new gig, I would celebrate by going to the Taj for a buffet or a breakfast.
For a 23 year old, it was a thrill to be able to afford the atmosphere of the Taj. To me it was a place where aspirations found their destination. In those days, my wife to be was also a management trainee at the Taj. We met later however. For both of us the Taj embodied the memories of youthful excitement and hopeful beginnings.
Now those memories have forever been clouded by the madness that raged this past week.
We pray for those who have lost family members and wish the city back to its glamorous best.
The horrible carnage in Mumbai is sending depressing messages about the realities of the present age of terror. The first message is from the terrorists – "we have no moral conscience; in our pursuit of what we think is justice we will not balk from any form of evil that one can imagine". The horror of this message is compounded by the daring and the spectacular fashion in which the operation was carried out. The terrorists are determined, brazen, motivated and were in middle school when 9/11 happened!
(Watch video: Rice “satisfied” with Pakistan's anti-terror stance)
The second reality is a verdict on the complete and utter failure of the wars on terror that the U.S. and its allies have been waging since 2001. If this is what the terrorists are capable of after being incessantly hounded by the world's major powers, then we should be preparing for a bleak future indeed.
The wars on terror that are being waged in South Asia have caused too many innocent deaths. The "targeted strikes" by the U.S. have killed hundreds of civilians in South Asia in the past few months. Many people are being tortured by law enforcement agencies. People have lost families, homes and businesses in riots by murderous gangs often protected by the government. And governments continue to avoid addressing root causes such as Palestine and Kashmir.
Increasingly abuse of Islam, its values, its history and its symbols is being used as a weapon in the war on terror and this too continues to win more recruits for the extremists. All the above in conjunction with religious extremism contribute to more egregious forms of terror.
This is a wakeup call. There must be a significant rethinking in how we confront the challenge of terrorism. Current strategies have generally failed but for a few successes. The Saudis for example, have succeeded in reducing terror inside Saudi Arabia through dialogue and re-education of youth. In Iraq the U.S. won over the Iraqis – the so called sons of Iraq -- who had joined Al Qaeda through dialogue and political and monetary incentives. Why can't the same creative approach be brought to South Asia?
In India even those who combat hate are often consumed by hate. Pragmatism evaporates when hatred reigns. But the U.S. and NATO can try an alternative to their current failed approach.
The final question this carnage poses is to all Indians – Muslims and Hindus alike. What kind of India do they want? India is on the verge of a historical breakthrough. At its current rate of growth it will soon be a developed nation and a major world power. But in order to sustain the growth it needs internal stability. Without internal stability it will become a land of contradictions, always on the verge but never really there.
India will need to improve its ability to deal with terrorist threats. Intelligence gathering and operational performance are not on par with the threats it faces. It must also work to restore the faith of Indian Muslims in the state so that they work with it rather than against it. If another riot in which thousands of Muslims are slaughtered, as they were in Mumbai in 1992-93 and in Gujarat 2002, is allowed by the government then needless to say there will be more alienation and more radicalization of Indian Muslims and the problems will only grow.
Finally, India must find the way to work with Pakistan without resorting to another war that will only make matters worse. Rejecting outright President-Elect Obama's recent offer to send President Clinton as a mediator to resolve the Kashmir conflict is not a commitment to peace. India is eager for U.S. support and intervention in every other matter, why not in the case of Kashmir?
-- Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
Subtopic
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) — which reportedly represents the minority voice in the country — expressed its outrage over last week’s Mumbai terror attacks and demanded tougher and decisive measures soon.
The Muslim body asked the UPA government to “chase and eliminate” the four big ‘terror’ fish — currently in Pakistan — who are on India’s most wanted list. These noted terrorist include Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, head of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba; Syed Salahuddin, chief of Hijbul Mujahideen; Dawood Ibrahim, underworld don and main accused in the 1993 Mumbai blast; and Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, AIMPLB vice-president, said the nation stands firmly behind the UPA government in its battle against the terrorists. Khalid Rashid Firangimehli, a well-known Sunni cleric and an AIMPLB member, echoed Sadiq’s stand. “All existing problems can be solved if these four terrorists are eliminated. These people are running training camps in Pakistan and PoK. If required, the Centre should chase and kill them without any delay. We can assure you that we’ll support whatever stand the Centre takes in this regard,” Firangimehli said.
8:23 GMT, Thursday, 4 December 2008
Rice urges tough Pakistan action
Protesters shout anti-Pakistan slogans in Mumbai on 3 Devember 2008
Anger is growing in India that the Mumbai attacks were not prevented
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called on the Pakistani government to take a "tough line" on terrorism after arriving in Islamabad for talks.
Ms Rice also said Pakistan had to mount a "robust" response to last week's attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, which left at least 188 people dead.
India says the attackers had links to Pakistan, which Islamabad has denied.
Ms Rice arrived in Pakistan's capital after visiting India amid growing tension between the two neighbour
Millibrand
Must Be Hard On Terror'
David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is a British politician who is the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Member of Parliament for the constituency of South Shields, Tyne and Wear.
2:27pm UK, Thursday January 15, 2009
David Miliband has called on Pakistan to show "zero tolerance" towards militants blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks.
"We know the attacks were carried out by Laskhar e Taiba operating from the territory of Pakistan," he said in a speech at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, one of the places attacked by the gunmen who killed a total of 165 people.
"There must be zero tolerance towards such organisations," the Foreign Secretary said.
Ahead of the speech, Mr Miliband warned the "war on terror" may have done more harm than good and strengthened the position of violent extremists.
He criticised the US-led campaign for painting the threat posed by hugely different groups as a simple battle of good and evil.
"Historians will judge whether it has done more harm than good," he wrote in The Guardian.
"The more we lump terrorist groups together and draw the battle lines as a simple binary struggle between moderates and extremists or good and evil, the more we play into the hands of those seeking to unify groups with little in common.
"We should expose their claim to a compelling and overarching explanation and narrative as the lie that it is. Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution or an ideology."
A number of European Parliament Committee on International Trade delegates were staying in the Taj Mahal hotel when it was attacked,[107] but none of them were injured. British Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim (who was in the lobby when gunmen initially opened fire there) and German Social Democrat MEP Erika Mann were hiding in different parts of the building.[108] Also reported present was Spanish MEP Ignasi Guardans, who was barricaded in a hotel room.[109] Another British Conservative MEP, Syed Kamall, reports that he along with several other MEPs left the hotel and went to a nearby restaurant shortly before the attack.[108] Kamall also reported that Polish MEP Jan Masiel was thought to have been sleeping in his hotel room when the attacks occurred.[108] He did not leave his room for a long time, but he finally managed to safely leave the hotel.[110] Kamall and Guardans report that a Hungarian MEP's assistant was shot.[108][111]
Also caught up in the shooting were the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, while checking in at the Oberoi Trident,[111] and Indian MP N. N. Krishnadas of Kerala, while having dinner at a restaurant in the Taj hotel.[11
India and Israel Eye Iran
Ninan Koshy | February 13, 2008
Editor: John Feffer
www.fpif.org
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4959
Israel’s spy satellite launched by India in the third week of January considerably enhances Israel’s intelligence-gathering capability. The launch of the Tecsar satellite, also known as Polaris, also marks a new stage in India-Israeli strategic relations and adds a new factor in the complex security scenario in the Middle East.
Arms & Intelligence
Indian- Israeli security, intelligence cooperation
Israel-India, Politics, 1/9/2002
The Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres has stressed that there is a security and intelligence cooperation between Israel and India and that relations between the two sides's security departments are firm and excellent.
During his meeting on Tuesday in new Delhi with the Indian foreign minister Peres defended the policy of escalation and aggression pursued by the government of Sharon against the Palestinian people, noting, simultaneously the need of continuing the dialogue with the Palestinians. The Israeli radio reported.
----------------------------------
February 7, 2008
Over the past few years, India has become Israel's biggest client in the global arms market. Between 2000 and 2006, India bought military hardware and software worth seven billion US dollars from Israel. This included a one billion dollar deal for the Falcon early warning system and smaller contracts for unmanned surveillance aircraft.
In 2006, India signed a 480 million dollar contract with Israel to develop a "next generation" Barak missile for its navy. This was followed last year by a 2.5 billion dollar deal to develop antiaircraft and antimissile systems based on the Green Pine radar. This is the biggest military contract in the history of Israel.
But India-Israel collaboration is not limited to arms deals. It extends to military and space research and development across a broad range, including surveillance satellite technology and electronic warfare, and upgrading of Soviet-era equipment including fighter jets, field guns and helicopters.
The two states are also widely believed to share military intelligence, especially pertaining to Pakistan and Islamic militants. And Israel's Mossad secret service is thought to have trained India's external intelligence agencies and a special protection group that guards important people.
By P.S. Patnaik
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai were aimed at slowing the economy that has expanded at an average 8.9 percent in the past four years.
The attacks, which killed 164 people, follow a familiar pattern and pose a threat to democracy, Singh said. The fight against terrorists shouldn’t “brutalize society,” he said in a speech at a conference of jurists in New Delhi.
The government is concerned the terror attacks may cut investment and moderate growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. India forecasts the $1.2 trillion economy to expand 7 percent in the year ending March 31, its slowest pace in six years. The militants armed with guns and grenades attacked 13 sites across India’s financial capital.
“When cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad are targeted, the target is also India’s economic rise,” Singh said. “When our economy is hurt, our people are hurt, our democracy is hurt.”
The attacks on two luxury hotel-complexes, a Jewish center, a cafe, a hospital and a railway station began on the night of Nov. 26 and ended in the morning of Nov. 29.
“We need to be resolute and yet careful in our fight against terrorism,” Singh said. “We need to understand the relationship between human rights and the fight against terrorism. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive.”
India announced an overhaul of the country’s security and intelligence agencies after the government was criticized for its response to the attacks on Mumbai. The prime minister has said the shortage of police in the country requires attention. India has about 143 policemen for every 100,000 people.
For Related News: Most-read Indian stories this week: MNI INDIA 1W <GO> Top financial services stories: FTOP <GO>
Last Updated: December 13, 2008 01:47 EST
Indian Home Minister Mr Shivraj Patil has resigned owning moral responsibility for the Mumbai terror attacks. Mr. Patil has sent his resignation to the Prime Minister.
Senior Congress leader Verrapa Moily said that Mr. Patil upheld the legacy of Congress Party to take moral responsibility in such circumstances. He also criticised the NDA regime when parliament was attacked and the then Home Minister Mr. L K Advani refused to step Indian Home Minister Mr Shivraj Patil has resigned owning moral responsibility for the Mumbai terror attacks. Mr. Patil has sent his resignation to the Prime Minister.
Senior Congress leader Verrapa Moily said that Mr. Patil upheld the legacy of Congress Party to take moral responsibility in such circumstances. He also criticised the NDA regime when parliament was attacked and the then Home Minister Mr. L K Advani refused to step down.
More Resignations
Criticism of politicians and resignations
Indians criticised their political leaders after the attacks, saying their bickering and ineptness was at least partly responsible. The Times of India commented on its front page that “Our politicians fiddle as innocents die".[191]
Political resignations
Resigned 30-Nov-2008[192];
Replaced by P. Chidambaram
National Security Advisor M K Narayanan
Offered to resign 30-Nov-2008;
and rejected by Prime Minister[193]
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh
Resigned 01-Dec-2008[194]; Replaced by Ashok Chavan.
Deputy CM of Maharashtra R. R. Patil
Resigned 01-Dec-2008[195]; Replaced by Chhagan Bhujbal.
Attacks Witness Goes Missing
Mumbai Attacks Witness Goes Missing
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 1:20 pm Under India News 192 views
Mumbai: The investigations into the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks have suffered a setback after a key eyewitness became untraceable.
The Mumbai Police said on Tuesday that Anita Uddaiya, the woman who had identified the bodies of nine killed Mumbai terrorists, has been missing since January 11.
Anita, 47, had seen the terrorists get off from their boat and land in Mumbai on November 26. She had identified the terrorists’ bodies at the city’s JJ Hospital.
The police have swung into action and are searching for Anita, whose daughter Seema Ketan Joshi filed a complaint after her mother went missing from her house in the Cuffe Parade’s Fisherman’s Colony.
The Crime Branch of the city police, which is the investigating agency in the November 26 terror attacks, has also launched a probe into the incident.
“We are also probing the disappearance of the lady since she is a witness in the case,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.
Anita was on a boat near her house at Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade when she saw 10 men leaving an airboat.
She is however, not a key witness in the trial of arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.
David C Mulford -
Credible evidence against LeT:
NEW DELHI: Emphasising that India and US are on the same page on terror, ambassador David Mulford has said that the
Mumbai attack dossier contains credible evidence on the role of Lashkar-e-Toiba in the terror act.'I think the
dossier is credible [Economictimes]
Preview
From Times Online
January 5, 2009
India publishes 'proof' dossier on Mumbai attacks
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
India dramatically ramped up its diplomatic offensive against Pakistan today, releasing evidence linking "elements"
in the neighbouring nuclear-armed state to the Mumbai terror attacks for the first time.
A dossier handed to Pakistan's high commission in Delhi included interceptions of telephone calls made between the
ten Mumbai gunmen and their alleged handlers in Pakistan during the attacks. "The commanders in Pakistan are
following events on television and are issuing real-time instructions; telling the gunmen to target certain
nationalities and religions; to maximise casualties; not to touch Muslims. This is hands-on direction," a senior
Indian government official told The Times.
The commands included the order to execute six foreign Jews held at Nariman House, an orthodox Jewish outreach
centre, during the Mumbai atrocities, which claimed more than 170 lives in all.
Those giving the orders are alleged to be senior members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terrorist
faction that Indian officials believe still has the support of Pakistan's powerful spy agency, Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI). They include Zarar Shah, the LeT's communications chief, who has been arrested in Pakistan and
is believed to have admitted his role to Pakistani investigators. "He played a major part," Rakesh Maria, the
officer in charge of the police investigation in Mumbai, said.
Related Links
* ‘Light the fire’ order set Mumbai ablaze
* Pakistani Islamist admits Mumbai link
* Mumbai: city of death
The dossier, which has also been passed to diplomats from countries including the UK and US, also includes an
alleged confession from Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole Mumbai gunman to be captured alive. He says he is a
Pakistani national who was trained for more than a year by the LeT in Pakistan. Details of the terrorists' weapons,
GPS navigation systems and satellite and mobile phones are also included.
India – Israel Cooperation since 1998
India-Israel cooperation has intensified since 1998 - Indian Home Minister L. K. Advani’s visit to Israel drew much attention in external media both in terms of the composition of the delegation (Heads of India’s intelligence agencies RAW, IB, and central police organisations fighting terrorism)
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US, UK, Israel ramp up intelligence aid to India
28 Nov 2008, 2320 hrs IST, Chidanand
WASHINGTON: Unprecedented intelligence cooperation involving investigating agencies and spy outfits of India, United States, United Kingdom and Israel has got underway to crack the method and motive behind the Mumbai terrorist massacre.
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India is Israel’s largest arms export market in the world. Sales in 2006 were $1.5 billion, roughly the same as in each of the preceding three years as well. This from Israel’s total arms sales of $4.2 billion in 2006; the India market comprised more than one-third. Sales included upgrades for MIG 21 aircraft and T72 tanks originally purchased from Russia, the Barak anti-missile ship defense system, communications equipment, laser-guided munitions and the Phalcon. The first of five Phalcon AWACs were delivered in 2007. Co-partnerships are now developing between Indian and Israeli firms.
----------------------------
A sea change in India’s relations with Israel took place after the National Democratic Alliance Government (NDA), led by the Hindu militants of the Bharatiya Janatha Party, came to power in 1998. India soon became Israel’s closest ally in Asia with strategic, defense, and intelligence cooperation growing rapidly. India became the biggest market for Israeli arms. Israel became India’s second largest supplier of arms but also the largest supplier of several high-tech, critical weaponry such as a wide array of surveillance items, electronic warfare systems, a ground-based Green Pine ABM radar, and Phalcon airborne warning and control systems. These arms sales were part of a declared NDA policy to forge an alliance among India, the United States, and Israel.
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW or R&AW) is India's external intelligence agency. Formed in September 1968 after the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, its primary function is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations. In addition, it is also responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons in order to advise Indian foreign policymakers. Until the creation of R&AW in September 1968, the Intelligence Bureau handled both internal and external intelligence.
Mumbai Attacks: A Deadly “Performance”
Namrata Goswami
December 05, 2008
Dr. Namrata Goswami is Associate Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.
For 62 hours, from the night of November 26 to the morning of November 29, the city of Mumbai was held hostage to terror attacks. A significant element in these attacks was the willingness of the terrorists to engage security forces in a frontal gun battle. Earlier attacks have generally involved simultaneous bomb blasts in crowded market places, hospitals and office complexes. The intensity and meticulous planning that went into the attacks are of an unprecedented nature. National Security Guard (NSG) commandos expressed surprise at the training level of the terrorists and the quantity of weapons carried by the terrorists.
It has come to light from the interrogation of the arrested terrorist, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman , a resident of Faridkot village in Pakistan’s Punjab province, that 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) men left Karachi docks and rowed out to the Arabian Sea in the early morning of November 23 and later on hijacked a Porbandar-based fishing boat Kuber to reach Mumbai. Ajmal’s interrogation report reveals that all his companions were Pakistani citizens – Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shoaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ismail, Abdul Rahman (Bara) and Abdul Rahman (Chhota). All 10 terrorists undertook a special ten month training module known as the Daura-e-Shaifa, which specialized on raids against hotels and hospitals. It also included training in marine combat and navigation skills. The group reached Mumbai waters on November 26 during dusk, landed at Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade and then split up into four batches to target Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Taj Hotel, Leopold Café, and Nariman House.
Each of these targets was well chosen in terms of their “performance” value -- the elite in Mumbai and foreigners usually thronged these places and targeting them would result in grabbing national and international media attention.
On November 18, RAW intercepted a satellite phone conversation made to a number in Lahore, Pakistan, known to be used by the military commander of LeT known alternatively by the names Yusuf Muzammil or Abu Hurrera, also known as “Yahah”. The caller notified his handlers that he was heading for Mumbai with unspecified cargo.
As a result of the intelligence it had received, India’s Navy and Coast Guard were on the lookout for suspicious ships entering Indian territorial waters, and were specifically told to watch for an unidentified ship coming from Karachi.
US signals intelligence (SIGINT) picked up a spike in “chatter” indicating something was brewing, which was supported by information from assets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some of the information that was received by US intelligence was passed on to India as early as September.
The details were specific. The CIA station chief in Delhi reportedly met with his counterpart at India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to pass on intelligence that LeT was planning a major attack that would come from the sea.
Less than a week before the attacks, a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan purportedly killed a British citizen of Pakistani descent named Rashid Rauf,
The fact that the gunmen came by sea - and sneaked into the city through a crowded fishing colony - points to almost non-existent coastal police patrols, as a local officer admits.
All that the police have is a couple of launches. They have no radar.
Even then, they had to act with almost no information -- not even an accurate floor plan of the massive Taj hotel -- and of course in grossly inadequate numbers, given the need to sweep the Taj room by room. As a result, the commandos didn't move on the lowest-priority Nariman House of Chabad, the smallest target by far, until Friday morning, more than 40 hours after it was first entered by the terrorists on Wednesday night. They blasted their way inside, and after an interval -- which could have proved fatal to any captives had any still been alive at that point -- other government commandos rappelled from helicopters, in full view of TV cameras and the uncontained crowd pressing in all around. They were greatly applauded as they left after killing the terrorists and finding the five hostages dead inside
no one thought to send the commandos in the fastest way possible -- by commandeering several of the passenger jets at New Delhi's airport with crews ready to fly. Instead, an old and slow Ilyushin Il-76 and its sleeping pilots were summoned from the Chandigarh airport 150 miles away. The transport plane did not arrive in New Delhi until 2 a.m. By the time the commandos arrived in central Mumbai, it was 7 a.m., 9 1/2 hours after the first reports of attacks.
Page last updated at 13:13 GMT, Tuesday, 2 December 2008
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'Rot' at heart of Indian intelligence
By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Mumbai
An Indian commando in Mumbai
India's commando forces took hours to reach the battle in Mumbai
The blame game over who was responsible for bloody terror attacks in the western Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) has a sense of déjà vu about it.
Security experts have criticised the response to the attacks, which left nearly 200 people dead, as "amateurish, sluggish and feeble".
Indian intelligence agencies are leaking information that they gave about half a dozen warnings to the government in Maharashtra state - of which Mumbai is the capital.
The reports say Maharashtra was warned that strikes were being planned on city landmarks, including, possibly, the Taj Mahal hotel at the historic Gateway of India.
Authorities in Mumbai flatly deny that they received any tip-offs. "It is unimaginable that we would have got this sensitive information and not react," says state Interior Secretary Chitkala Zutshi.
Knee-jerk responses
But security experts confirm that information extracted from a group of Indian and Pakistani men arrested in northern India earlier this year revealed that some men belonging to Pakistan-based groups had done a reconnaissance of major landmarks in Mumbai. The agencies had also been picking up militant chatter on attacks in the city.
The police in India are working on manpower and equipment assessments last made in the 1970s
Security analyst Praveen Swami
Yet the local police and intelligence agencies appeared to have failed to act on any of the information - despite doubts as to whether the information was shared promptly enough between the Mumbai authorities.
This is a story which keeps repeating itself in a country which has been hit by over half a dozen big "terror attacks" this year - the central and local security authorities trade charges over the sharing and quality of intelligence, followed by knee-jerk responses and investigations which fizzle out in a couple of years.
The attacks and their aftermath again point to the rot that has set into the country's internal security system and a lack of cohesion between civilian and security wings of the government.
One telling example: six days after the attack, even the number of dead and injured keeps going up and down, due to poor co-ordination between the police and hospitals.
More seriously, the Indian police appear to be incapacitated by a lack of money and training. Poor working conditions, rudimentary surveillance and communications equipment, inadequate forensic science laboratories and outdated weaponry are making matters worse.
"The Mumbai attacks prove that the whole system is falling apart. The police in India are working on manpower and equipment assessments last made in the 1970s," says security analyst Praveen Swami.
The fact that the gunmen came by sea - and sneaked into the city through a crowded fishing colony - points to almost non-existent coastal police patrols, as a local officer admits.
All that the police have is a couple of launches. They have no radar.
The Mumbai police - like most police in India - remain in a time warp: they are equipped with World War II vintage rifles and carbines handed down by the army. In most states, an average policeman's salary and status is equivalent to that of an unskilled municipal worker, encouraging corruption.
Inadequate protection
Budgets do not extend to supplying food to police personnel on shift, so many end up extorting food from street hawkers. They also routinely hitch free rides because they don't have enough vehicles.
Indian soldier patrols outside Nariman House
Training and faster response times are urgently needed, critics say
Bullet proof vests are of inferior quality and phone interception equipment remains largely rudimentary.
And three years after the central government announced the setting up an ambitious National Police Mission to set out the future needs and requirements of the force, nothing has happened.
India's commando forces are also not exactly in good shape.
A group of the elite 7,400-strong National Security Guards (NSG) - who were flown in to Mumbai eight hours after the attacks - is based near the capital, Delhi. Many of the commandos, say experts, are wasted in giving protection to politicians and other VIPs.
The country's best commando force does not have its own aircraft. As a result, it has become used to spending hours reaching crisis locations, with mixed results.
"On average, the commando force has taken six to seven hours to reach and begin their operations and get their act together every time they have been called for. There have been delays," says Praveen Swami.
He says the commandos have been trained to rescue small groups of people. "They have not been trained on multiple location operations of such scale."
'No way to fight terrorism'
Any deficiencies in their training may be explained by the fact that a Mumbai-type attack only happens very rarely.
Mumbai
Attackers arrived by sea, police say
That is why Indian security experts like Ajai Sahni say that the response to the attacks was so poor.
"This is no way to fight terrorism," he says.
After the Mumbai attacks, the local government announced it would set up a state commando force: to begin with, some 500 armed men would be ready in four months.
This, when the basic training for the NSG commandos takes six months. And Maharashtra, along with other states, has no commando training centres.
A number of states where there have been attacks by Maoist rebels plan to raise their own commando forces, but early results point to hasty, faulty planning.
The authorities in eastern Orissa state, for example, hired 8,000 new policemen for anti-Maoist operations, but found to their dismay that it took six months to train just 350 of them.
There are allegations that many of the candidates paid bribes to get into the force.
Commandos with sniffer dogs outside the Taj Mahal Hotel
India is seen as a 'soft' target
Painfully slow and lazy bureaucracy means that the modernisation of the security forces often takes ages. Police in Uttar Pradesh state took four years to buy imported surveillance equipment.
By the time it arrived, it had become outdated and now lies disused. One police official even paid by his own credit card to pick up a piece of $60 equipment from a foreign website for his forces because it would have taken him months, if not years, to acquire it
Communication
For instance, while the terrorists used cutting-edge technology to communicate with each other, despite being completely cut-off from the outside and under intense firing from the security forces, India’s National Security Group (NSG), the crack force of commandos who eventually managed to free Mumbai from the terrorists, did not even have wireless communication facility. NSG commandos used their own mobile phones and sign language, the NSG head said.
Maharashtra's state anti-terrorism squad, which is headquartered less than 10 minutes from the sites of the attacks but which had a total of 35 officers -- and fewer than 15 on duty. This, to protect a state population of 96 million, 18 million in Mumbai alone. The squad's commander, Hemant Karkare -- who was killed early in the attacks -- was a 54-year-old investigator, not a fighter even at the level of an ordinary infantryman.
By contrast, India's National Security Guards, formed in 1985, are well trained. But the guards are a military-style commando assault force, with no real experience in civilian hostage rescue, even though that is one of their official missions. With 7,500 trained men, they could have responded adequately in a military way, if only someone had managed to call enough of them in quickly.
The first terrorist attack was reported about 9:30 p.m. The strategy for alerting the central government failed, so it was Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of the Maharashtra state government, who got the call to decide what help was needed. He happened to be on a trip in the state of Kerala, hundreds of miles to the south. For 90 minutes, he did nothing of consequence while receiving calls on his cellphone about the attacks. Finally, at 11 p.m., he called Shivraj Patil, the home minister in charge of the nation's security and law enforcement. (After this colossal security failure, Patil resigned Sunday. It took Deshmukh until Wednesday to do the same.)
basic training for the NSG commandos takes six months. And Maharashtra, along with other states, has no commando training centres.
The country's best commando force does not have its own aircraft. As a result, it has become used to spending hours reaching crisis locations, with mixed results.
"On average, the commando force has taken six to seven hours to reach and begin their operations and get their act together every time they have been called for. There have been delays," says Praveen Swami.
Budgets do not extend to supplying food to police personnel on shift, so many end up extorting food from street hawkers. They also routinely hitch free rides because they don't have enough vehicles.
Indian soldier patrols outside Nariman House
Training and faster response times are urgently needed, critics say
Bullet proof vests are of inferior quality and phone interception equipment remains largely rudimentary.
More seriously, the Indian police appear to be incapacitated by a lack of money and training. Poor working conditions, rudimentary surveillance and communications equipment, inadequate forensic science laboratories and outdated weaponry are making matters worse.
