A day after Pakistan’s Interior Ministry gave a clean chit to ISI and other state actors involved in the Mumbai terror attacks, India on Thursday rejected Pakistan’s offer of joint probe into the role of Abu Jundal and Lashkar-e-Toiba in 26/11. Sources said Pakistan’s offer is ridiculous and India will not respond to Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s note offering full cooperation.
Armed with vital information accessed through Jundal’s interrogation, India will now mount pressure on Pakistan to act on the terrorists’ list shared with Pak agencies. So far, only Zaki-Ur-Rahman Lakhvi alias Chacha has been arrested by Pakistan. Even the case against LeT senior functionaries including Hafiz Saeed and ISI officials named by David Headley were not pursued properly by Pak agencies.
“Jundal is singing right now and gave some crucial information which will establish the role of Pak State and non-state actors in 26/11. Pakistan’s help is not required at this stage and we will not share any information with Pakistan. They have already been in a denial mode and gave clean chit to dreaded terrorists despite sharing the evidence. We don’t want to repeat the same exercise again with Pakistan,” sources said.
During the course of investigation, Jundal had confessed of having procured a Pakistani passport in the name of Riasat Ali. He also received two Pakistani Identity cards - one in Urdu and other in English. Jundal told interrogators that he used the Urdu identity card while in Pakistan and carried the English card for travel abroad. Both the ID cards and the passport were provided by ISI after 26/11.
“Jundal met Kasab and 9 other terrorists twice in 2008. An ISI officer was Jundal’s handler in Pakistan and used to monitor his movement. He was responsible for Jundal’s travel and stay in Saudi Arabia. After 26/11, Jundal used to meet other LeT operatives on the directions of his ISI handler to draw plans for future targets,” sources said. Jundal visited the Muridke camp along with Lakhvi and Muzammil, another top Lashkar operative, before the 26/11 attacks. He is said to have been introduced to Pasha who was running a terror training camp especially for the Kashmiri youths for India-based targets. Jundal was asked by Muzammil to recruit more cadre and intensify terror activities in India.
Sources said Jundal visited Kathmandu in 2005 on the direction of Fayaz Kagzi, a LeT operative and Jundal’s mentor. Jundal spent four months in Kathmandu and got trained in handling explosives. He also confessed of playing a major role in the 2006 Ahmedabad blast.
The NIA, on June 8, registered an FIR against Jundal and Kagzi for planning and executing terror attacks in India. The FIR, which was filed before his arrest, was based on the intelligence input from the Intelligence Bureau on his detention in Saudi Arabia. He can be tried for 2006 Ahmadabad and 2010 Pune’s German Bakery blasts also.
Jundal’s name also figures in the Maharashtra ATS chargesheet filed in connection with the Pune blast.