Satphone links terrorists to LeT man held in UP

PROBE GATHERS STEAM

Mateen Hafeez I TNN

Mumbai: Investigation into the 26/11 terror attack revealed that the satellite phone seized from Ismail, one of the attackers, contained a specific Pakistan-based mobile number that had cropped up during the interrogation of Faheem Ahmed Ansari, a Mumbai-based Lashkar-e-Taiba operative earlier this year.

Sources said a joint intelligence committee had, on November 19, sent a message to the Coast Guard and other authorities saying they had intercepted a telephonic conversation in which the caller had said, “Hum pahunch rehe hain (we are reaching)’’. The suspicious call was decoded and an alert sent to the authorities.

The city crime branch dialled the number and the person on the other side asked in Urdu, “Who is speaking?’’, to which the officer replied, “Allah ka banda.’’ Hearing this, the receiver hung up.

The satphone, which contains several international numbers, had a cellphone number on which Ansari (35), an LeT operative, had made several calls before he was arrested in February by the UP special task force. The satphone’s call records are being analysed.

Ansari was also accused of doing a recce of more than 12 places in Mumbai for two months. These included Taj Mahal Palace, Oberoi, police commissioner’s office, state police headquarters and Churchgate station.

Following Ansari’s revelations, the ATS, which later arrested Ansari, stated that an organised and well-planned strategy was being adopted by the LeT to target the country’s financial capital.

Ansari had also disclosed that LeT was planning a “severe terror strike” in Mumbai and that he had been asked to look for two safe-houses, one for himself and another to store weapons. Crime branch chief Rakesh Maria had said the militants were to return after taking hostages with them. It is also learnt that the Global Positioning System on Kuber, the boat reportedly used by the 10 terrorists, had a set time of 11.30 pm (Friday) in its clock.

The police said a resident of Motilal Nagar in Goregaon, Ansari spent six months at a training camp in Pakistan’s Muzaffarabad after he went missing from Dubai where he was employed in a press.

Ansari, who was later brought to the city by the ATS, had revealed that two more Mumbai-based youths attended a training camp in Pakistan and were currently missing from the city. The ATS had in February stated that Ansari had also brainwashed at least half-a-dozen youths from Mumbai. Not a single of them was, however, arrested.

The crime branch, which is probing terror case, may seek Ansari’s custody from a UP court for inquiry.

The police suspect that the “missing trained youths’’ could be a part of the local group that provided support in terms of logistics to the 10 terrorists who entered Mumbai on November 26.

Meanwhile, arrested terrorist Ajmal has told the investigators in detail about the direct involvement of Zakiur Rahman, alias Chachu, in the assault on Mumbai. Zakiur, one of the seniormost Amirs of Lashkar, has so far been known for keeping a distance from the cells that the terrorist outfit routinely sends to cause mayhem in India.

In this instance, Chachu—called so because of his seniority—was at hand to see off the group when Ajmal and his fellow jihadis set out from Karachi’s Azizabad to strike at Mumbai. ATS sources said Zakiur’s involvement underlines the importance Lashkar attached to the terror strike.

The Times of India, December 2, 2008