‘All 10 attackers from Pakistan’

The Mumbai Police on Monday said they had credible information to establish the Pakistani connection of the 10 LeT terrorists who attacked the city on November 26, reports Debasish Panigrahi.

The Mumbai Police on Monday said they had credible information to establish the Pakistani connection of the 10 LeT terrorists who attacked the city on November 26. But they were yet to establish the Pakistan government’s role behind the attack.

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Joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said the police had established their names and “exact” postal addresses in Pakistan. He said all of them belonged to Pakistan’s Punjab province.

While three each were from Okhara and Multan respectively, two were from Faisalabad. One each was from Sialkot and Dera Ismail Khan.

The two terrorists involved in the attack at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus were identified as Ajmal Amir Kasab (captured alive) and Ismail Khan, 25. Maria refused to disclose the names of the rest of the eight slain terrorists.

Maria said the 10-member Lashkar squad was led by Khan, who was from Dera Ismail Khan district. “This (Mumbai) was not his first operation,” he said. “He had joined actions elsewhere before.” The officer refused to specify the fronts where Khan had participated before.

Maria said the materials recovered from Indian-owned fishing trawler Kuber — which had been hijacked by the Pakistani terrorists to reach Mumbai — also pointed towards their Pakistani origin. “The matchboxes, medical kits, rations such as wheat flour, rice and sugar, and even washing powder packets bear the makings of places in Pakistan,” he said.

The discovery was made after the boat’s owner, Vinod Masani, separated the items purchased from Porbunder, the trawler’s last port of call, from the rest.

Maria said the 9 mm pistols recovered from the terrorists bore the mark of Diamond Negi Frontier Arms Company, an arms factory in Peshawar.