Mumbai Police Home in on Attack Mastermind
By GEETA ANAND in Mumbai and ZAHID HUSSAIN in Islamabad
DECEMBER 2, 2008, 1:07 P.M. ET
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MUMBAI -- Mumbai police believe a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba planner in Pakistan masterminded the Mumbai terrorist attacks last week and was among several leaders of the militant group who were in touch by satellite links with the 10 terrorists in the two days before they landed in India.
A senior police official said that, in all, the names and numbers of five members of the Pakistani group's leadership were contained in a satellite phone left behind by the terrorists on a fishing vessel they hijacked then abandoned before reaching Mumbai. Records from the phone show calls had been made from it to these five men.
Among them: Yusuf Muzammil, head of Lashkar-e-Taiba's terrorism operations against India. The senior Indian police official said he was identified as the mastermind of the attacks by the only terrorist captured alive, Ajmal Kasab, or Qasab. The police official said two of Mr. Muzammil's deputies orchestrated the strikes, according to Mr. Kasab's testimony.
The attacks, which targeted three luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a train station and other locations around India's largest city, left at least 172 dead.
A senior Pakistani official confirmed that India has told Pakistan that the attack was planned by Mr. Muzammil. Mr. Muzammil's name appears on a list of 20 people whom India is demanding that Pakistan hand over.
India also has told Pakistan that the attacks were approved by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of Jamaat ud Dawa, the parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mr. Saeed denied the allegation that his group was involved. "India has always accused me without any evidence," Mr. Saeed said in an interview with GEO News, a private Pakistan Television channel.
According to Dipankar Banerjee, director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, an independent think tank in New Delhi, Mr. Muzammil became head of Lashkar-e-Taiba's planning cell some three months ago, after the previous head was killed. He is a Pakistani in his mid-30s and is based in Pakistan.
The senior Pakistani official said Pakistan was examining the list of suspects and had assured India that action would be taken against them if evidence was available of their involvement in last week's attacks.
According to the official, India has claimed that Mr. Kasab's handlers were constantly sending messages to him, even when he was already captured. But "we can take action only when we have some more proof," he said.
The attacks have ratcheted up tensions between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed rivals. On Tuesday both sides sought to reduce the strain.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister, said Tuesday that his country has offered investigators to help India probe the Mumbai attacks.
"The government of Pakistan has offered a joint investigation mechanism and we are ready to compose such a team which will help the investigation," he said in a televised statement. Mr. Qureshi, however, declined to say whether Pakistan would hand over the 20 men to India.
Mr. Qureshi held a special briefing for foreign diplomats in Islamabad Tuesday to explain Pakistan's point of view on tensions with India after the Mumbai attacks. India's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did the same, with an official saying that rumors India was massing troops on the border of Pakistan in response to the attacks was untrue, according to a diplomat who attended.
India also is demanding that Pakistan hand over Dawood Ibrahim, a Mumbai gangster-turned-terrorist-backer who is believed to be living in Karachi. Mr. Ibrahim has long been India's most wanted man, sought in connection with bombings in Mumbai in 1993.
Mr. Ibrahim is believed to live under protection in the fashionable Defense Housing Society in Karachi, a city where he runs a vast business and owns many prime properties. India has for long been demanding his extradition, but Pakistani authorities have denied that Mr. Ibrahim was on its soil.
Analysts said the extradition of Mr. Ibrahim, Mr. Saeed and other powerful militant leaders could cause a huge problem for the shaky civilian government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
"Any such move could have a huge backlash, particularly from the Islamic groups," said a senior official. It will also create problems for the military, which in the past had patronized Islamic militant groups.
Pakistan also would face difficulties in determining how to crack down on Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat ud Dawa, which has gained in strength despite being outlawed in 2002.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is an extremely secretive organization. Except for the top leadership, the identities of its members are not disclosed. Since its inception in 1990 it has produced thousands of trained and highly motivated fighters
Unlike other Pakistani based Jihadist organizations, Lashkar-e-Taiba draws its recruits from universities and colleges as well as from unemployed youth. It is widely believed to have links to elements of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence, the premier spy agency. The majority of Lashkar-e-Taiba recruits come from Pakistan's Punjab province, where Mr. Kasab is from.
Yousuf Raza Gilan, Pakistan's prime minister, convened a meeting of all of the country's political parties in the capital Tuesday to develop a joint response to tension with India.
The tension between the two countries comes amid revelations that the U.S. had provided some warning to India about a possible terrorist attack launched by sea as recently as September.
Hasan Gafoor, Mumbai police commissioner, told a press conference that there was a general warning in September after the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that other hotels could be targeted, but he said there was nothing specific. He said the police had been "sensitizing" hotels, malls and theaters about the possibility of a terrorist attack for months now.
He said the boat the attackers used before they hijacked the fishing vessel had started from Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city.
He also said some of the attackers had been trained a year, some for longer, and that they were trained by ex-army men, although he wouldn't say which army.
The terrorists all had AK-47s, a pistol, hand grenades and 300 rounds of ammunition. They also had satellite phones with GPS and were organized in five groups of two men each. The police also found 5,400 rupees and a handful of credit cards on the slain terrorists. In addition to the attacks, five bombs were found in taxis.
"The purpose of the attack was to cause havoc and kill as many people as possible," Mr. Gafoor said.
—Tariq Engineer in Mumbai and Jackie Range in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Write to Geeta Anand at geeta.anand@wsj.com |
