29.11.08

Pakistani Jihadis wreck havoc in Mumbai






The gang of ten desperados who wreaked mayhem in Mumbai for three days was led to believe by its Lashkar bosses that all of them were not being sent on a suicide mission and that they would come back alive. In a sensational disclosure made by Ajmal Amir Kasab, the jihadi nabbed alive by the Mumbai police on Wednesday, the group had planned to sail back on Thursday. Their recruiters had even charted out the return route for them and stored it on the GPS device which they had used to navigate their way to the Mumbai shoreline. This suggests that the terrorists were willing to undertake a mission which they knew would be very risky, but not necessarily suicidal. Sources said that the bait of a safe return must have been used by the recruiters to convince those who were wavering to join in the audacious plot against Mumbai. Kasab made another important disclosure—that all ten terrorists were trained in marine warfare along with a special course, Daura-e-Shifa, conducted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in what at once transforms the nature of the planning from a routine terror strike into a specialized raid by commandos. 2 each went to CST, Nariman House, Oberoi and 4 to Taj.Some of the revelations of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the jihadi arrested in Mumbai, has stunned even battle-hardened ATS officials. They are surprised by the detailed training which the terrorists had evidently received before being despatched on their mission. Kasab has revealed the name of his fellow jihadis—all Pakistani citizens—as Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shoaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ismail, Abdul Rahman (Bara) and Abdul Rahman (Chhota). Kasab’s account also strengthens the belief that powerful elements in the Pakistani establishment may have been involved. According to him, the group set off on November 21 from a creek near Karachi and had received the arms and ammunition on board a Pakistani vessel which picked them up the following day. The ownership of the vessel is now the subject of an international probe. A day later, they came across an Indian-owned trawler, Kuber, which was commandeered on the seas. Four of the fishermen on the trawler were killed, but its skipper Amarjit Singh was forced to proceed towards India. Amarjit was killed the following day, and Ismail, the terrorist killed at Girgaum Chowpaty, took the wheel, reaching the Mumbai coast on November 26. The group shifted to inflatable boats before disembarking at Badhwar Park. They then split into five batches. Two of them, Ismail and Kasab, took a taxi to CST. Two other batches of two each headed for the Oberoi and Nariman House. The remaining four went to the Taj hotel.

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