MUMBAI: The lone captured terrorist, Ajmal Ameer Qasab, is singing like a parrot and is revealing much to establish the direct involvement of Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the Mumbai terror attacks.
According to sources in the Mumbai Crime Branch which is interrogating Qasab, while the jihadis were specially trained by ex-serviceman Abdul Rahman, popularly known as ‘Chacha’, for the Mumbai mission, the whole operation was guided and spearheaded by the chief of LeT intelligence and technology wing, Zakir-Ul-Rehman.
Even when the groups were holed up or were moving around in Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House, or engaged in combat with the NSG, they were continuously talking to Zakir-Ul-Rehman and taking instructions from him through their satellite phones and mobile phones.
“Though it is not clear what kind of ground back-up access he had while these terrorists were holed up at various locations, Zakir-Ul-Rehman was probably taking help from television and internet reports to guide the boys in taking certain actions like burning some part of the location to misguide the forces or firing from one side and moving to another,” said an officer who is one of the very few who are privy to what Qasab is telling the interrogators.
Qasab has revealed that while they were under training at various camps in forests close to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Zakir-Ul-Rehman took several sessions on techniques of reconnaissance and other methods of recce of a particular spot.
Zakir-Ul-Rehman, according to Qasab, was an ace intelligence man of the LeT and also moved around in camps of other terror outfits operating in the region, namely Harkat-ul-Mujahideen at Muzaffarabad, Al-Badr at Batrassi and Ougi and the Hizbul Mujahideen camps at Jungle-Mangal and trained jihadis in electronic communication skills.
A day before the team of 14 terrorists left Karachi, Zakir-Ul-Rehman had handed over a couple of satellite phones, mobile phones and SIM cards to them, and had deputed one of them, Abu Dera Ismael Khan, to operate them till they reached Mumbai.
After reaching Mumbai, each team was given one satellite phone and one mobile phone with one SIM card and were constantly being guided by Zakir-Ul- Rehman to their destination and thereafter till death.
