E-Paper
Pak hand in attacks suspected to be ISI man
After establishing the hand of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyeba in the 26/11 attack, the Mumbai police Crime Branch are now tracking down the ‘official’ hands behind the terrorist strike, reports Debasish Panigrahi.
After establishing the hand of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyeba in the 26/11 attack, the Mumbai police Crime Branch are now tracking down the ‘official’ hands behind the terrorist strike.
The needle of suspicion points to Col R. Saadat Ullah of the Special Communication Organisation (SCO) that functions under the Ministry of Information and Technology of the Pakistan Government.
The SCO is a wireless communication service provider in the PoK and the northern areas of Pakistan — both lawless territories. The cyber crime cell had traced the origin of the callphonex Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) account kharak_telco@yahoo.com to Saadat Ullah’s office PC at Quasim Road in Rawalpindi where the SCO is headquartered. The same IP address had also been used to send the threat mail (on behalf of Deccan Mujahideen) to media houses during the attack. HT tried to call up the number, however, there was no response.
The conversation between the Mumbai attackers had been made using this e-mail ID which was accessed by at least 10 IP addresses. One of those belonged to Ullah’s office IP address.
Crime Branch sources said the rest nine IP addresses had been hacked into through proxy servers. The hacking was done using Saadat Ullah’s official e-mail ID — pmit@sco.gov.pk. The same ID is also shared by Khurram Shezad, who the police are trying to identify.
Sources said the Col rank officer was suspected to be a senior ISI operative. “He seems to be a covert operative for the ISI which has long been lenient towards the anti-India terror groups for Pakistan’s proxy war against India,” said a source, requesting anonymity.
One of the instructors had been identified as Major General Saheb from the references made by the terrorists at Taj and Oberoi hotels during their conversation with the handlers. Efforts are on to identify the major general.
