Five terrorists involved in the Mumbai terror attacks may be still at large, the
New York Times reported today, citing evidence found on the trawler on which they travelled from Karachi to India's financial hub.
The newspaper report counters the Mumbai Police which
claimed that there were only ten terrorists in the vessel out of which nine were killed and one was arrested.
"Based on evidence found on the trawler, it was possible that five other men were involved in the plot and were still at large," the Times said.
The report also said that Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar-e-Taiba 'commander', was in Karachi for the last three months to help organise the terrorist attack in Mumbai.
The Mumbai attackers also kept in contact with their handlers in Pakistan with cellphones as they rounded up guests at the two hotels -- Taj and Oberoi, it said quoting a Pakistani official in contact with the terror outfit.
The attackers left a trail of evidence in a satellite phone they left behind on the fishing trawler they hijacked near Karachi at the start of their 500-mile journey to Mumbai, the report said.
The phone contained the telephone numbers of Yusuf Muzammil, a LeT militant considered to be mastermind of the Mumbai attack, Rehman and a number of other Lashkar militants, the Times said, citing a report on the Mumbai siege prepared by M J Gohel and Sajjan M Gohel, two security analysts who direct the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London.
The numbers dialed on the phone found on the trawler used to call Muzammil matched the numbers on the cell phones recovered from the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the report said.