Jundal says LeT’s Kafa had briefed Headley; cops sceptical

Going by the claims allegedly made by deported Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Abu Jundal, said to be one of the handlers of the terrorists who struck Mumbai on November 26, 2008, it was another top Lashkar commander, Abu al Kafa, who had briefed US national David Coleman Headley about the sites in Mumbai to be recced for the attack.

Going by the claims allegedly made by deported Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Abu Jundal, said to be one of the handlers of the terrorists who struck Mumbai on November 26, 2008, it was another top Lashkar commander, Abu al Kafa, who had briefed US national David Coleman Headley about the sites in Mumbai to be recced for the attack.

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Highly placed sources in the crime branch, which is interrogating Jundal, revealed that Kafa, one of the key participants in the preparation of the 26/11 terror strike, had apprised Headley of the five targets in Mumbai which needed to be scoped.

Sources said that though Jundal had claimed he had never interacted with Headley during his stint in the LeT terror camps, where he allegedly taught the 10 attackers Hindi, “he had heard of him [Headley] and knew the five targets in Mumbai he had video-graphed were at Kafa’s instance.”

Interrogators still believe that Jundal, who hails from Beed district, could have played a major role in analysing the video footage for the attackers on account of his familiarity with Mumbai’s topography.

Kafa’s name had first surfaced during the interrogation of captured 26/11 attacker Ajmal Amir Kasab, who had reportedly revealed that Kafa, an expert in handling arms and explosives, had trained them and was one of the LeT commanders who came to see them off at Karachi harbour. The crime branch suspects that if Jundal’s claims are true, Kafa could have briefed Headley at the behest of key Pakistani intelligence officials.

“It is not possible for Kafa, a LeT commander largely confined to the terror camps, to know the location and topography of the targets, especially a place like Chabad House which was not even known to the locals in Colaba before it came under attack,” said a source.