26/11: Lakhvi’s role revealed

Five CID officers told a Pak court that LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had facilitated training of all the 10 terrorists involved in Mumbai terror attacks

The key role played by LeT terror outfit’s operational commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and his associates in carrying out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks was revealed by a team of detectives from Islamabad’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday.

In a statement before the judge of the Special Anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, the five officers claimed that Lakhvi had facilitated the training of all the 10 terrorists involved in the attack by organising LeT training camps at Muzaffarabad, Buttle at Mansehra, Mirpur Sakro at Thatta and Yousaf Goth in Karachi.

Lakhvi and the six fellow accused in the Mumbai carnage are currently being held at the top-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.

According to the Pak Dawn newspaper, the five CID sleuths, who are prosecution witnesses in the case, briefed the court on the training camps run by Lakhvi and his associates.

And the court was told that Lakhvi in his capacity as the terror outfit’s operational commander, had trained other militants and also participated in the Afghan Jihad against Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Government.

The sleuths had also testified against Lakhvi’s associates, who too had received training at the LeT centre in Karachi’s Gadap town.

Pak intelligence agencies said Lakhvi also used to organise terror seminars--a two-week programme to select team leaders for future terror operations.

“Lakhvi used to screen anti-India video clips for terrorists undergoing training. During the investigation, it came to light that Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar also attended the training seminars organised by Lakhvi,” they said.

However, counsel for Lakhvi, Khwaja Haris Ahmed asked the prosecution witnesses whether they had actually seen the suspects undergoing training at the LeT camps. And the sleuths, on their part, said the inputs were based on the details provided by the informers.

“We also asked them (the sources) that if there were reports on the activities in these camps that were sent to senior officials, why no action was taken against the camps. Our contention is that there were no such camps,” the defence counsel claimed.

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