Jundal says he wasn’t first choice as 26/11 handler

Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handler for the 26/11 attacks in the city, was reportedly not the terror outfit’s first choice to help coordinate the attacks.

Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handler for the 26/11 attacks in the city, was reportedly not the terror outfit’s first choice to help coordinate the attacks.

According to Jundal’s admission before the Mumbai police’s crime branch, LeT operative Zulfikar Fayyaz Kagzi was the first choice, said sources in the crime branch. However, Kagzi developed differences with LeT leaders over the 26/11 plot and was thus kept out of it. It was only then that Jundal was incorporated in the LeT core team, in August 2008, sources said.

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LeT operative David Coleman Headley, who visited Mumbai and surveyed targets before the attack, had told the National Investigation Agency that LeT had included a local ‘Maharashtrian’ boy in the 16-member team which was being trained for the 26/111 attacks.

The crime branch is questioning Jundal to find out if Kagzi was the Marathi man who was trained along with Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist arrested for the attack.

Sources said that doubts were raised over the inclusion of Jundal, who hails from Beed, in the 26/11 plot, as Kagzi, also a Beed native, and a few others from Maharashtra were already in the LeT fold.

Jundal has reportedly told the crime branch that when the plot was formed, Kagzi and LeT commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi – who was coordinating and planning the attack – had developed differences.

Jundal was then brought in because he was among the most aggressive Indians in the LeT, said crime branch sources

Kagzi was later asked to leave Pakistan and is currently believed to be in Bahrain, said police sources.