Intelligence officials and police have started questioning a Maharashtra man who offers fresh first-hand testimony on the identities of the Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders who guided the 10-member team that carried out the 26/11 attacks.
Zabiuddin Ansari, who investigators allege was present in the LeT’s control room in Karachi at the time of the attacks, was held by the Delhi Police on his arrival from Riyadh on Monday morning.
In telephone conversations intercepted during the 26/11 attacks, first revealed by The Hindu in February 2010 and now posted online, an individual speaking with a marked Mumbai accent can be heard instructing the terrorists to make a list of demands to the media. The men at the control room also issued instructions to the attack team on operational decisions that included killing of hostages, using voice-over-internet-protocol communications.
Ansari, informed sources said, was held by the Saudi authorities earlier this year while he was travelling on a Pakistani passport, identifying himself as Riasat Ali. In July 2011, New Delhi requested his extradition from Pakistan, as part of a group of more than 50 wanted fugitives.
The arrest, highly placed government sources said, came after months of patient work by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service, the Ri’asat al-Istikhbarat al-’Amah. Intelligence services in both countries identified Ansari on the basis of intercepted phone communications.
Much of the National Investigation Agency’s firsthand insight into the 26/11 plot has so far relied on the testimony of Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley, who carried out the reconnaissance, which allowed the assault team to reach its targets precisely. He identified Sajid Mir, LeT’s controller of transnational military operations, as one of the men who instructed the team. The Monday’s arrest, government sources said, came after months of painstaking diplomatic talks among the authorities in Riyadh, Washington and New Delhi. Indian dignitaries visiting Saudi Arabia in recent months lobbied the Saudi authorities for assistance in Ansari’s case. IB Director Nehchal Sandhu is also thought to have directly worked with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz, to push forward the investigations.
A Washington-based Indian diplomat told The Hindu that the U.S. used its influence to push forward the case, seeing enhanced India-Saudi Arabia relations as a key element in bringing greater distance in India’s relationship with Iran.
“In the last six months,” a senior official told The Hindu, “Saudi Arabia has dramatically improved its cooperation on counter-terrorism issues with India.”
Keywords: Mumbai terror attack, 26/11, Indian Mujahideen, Abu Jindal, Zabiuddin Ansari arrest, counter-terrorism operations
Why has not been an enquiry so far to find out how the terrorists got past our security system? The attack took place at the heart of Mumbai, close to a large Navy establishment. Well, I shouldn't be asking idle questions, isn't it?
@All our government arrested them.Don't invite them to celebrate a party.There are many punishments which are worse than death.If we are really want to remove terrorism, if i suppose many terrorists are Muslims,can anyone dare to think why they become terrorists? however,you must sure that your muslim friend can never do such type of things.
it kind of irks to see one commando wearing a WWII era British military like helmet and the other wearing what looks like a motorcycle helmet in the pic. The government should never compromise when it comes to security hardware and tactical gear.
Root cause for terrorist attacks are due to the hatred brewed between communities by the politicians to keep the vote bank politics going on forever. 9/11 or 26/11, people don't know the entire truth behind the veil. It serves for the long time mud-slinging politics. Keep up politicos. Muslims are scapegoats in your world-class drama.
This arrest augurs well for the 26\11 case. Now this is another powerful bargaining chip with which we can get the full details and put Pakistan on the back-foot. They are already in a pathetic position when this issue is raised. They were hiding behind Samjautha case for some time, then their judicial process. People have to realize that having Pakistan on the run is itself a great achievement. This is how international relationship works. It is slow and calibrated. You want to see the success of this process? Just see the trade figures between India and Pakistan. It is on the upswing. Just see the casualty figures in Kashmir. It is on the downswing. I think the issue is nicely handled. Considering the pathetic handling of 2G case and the LokPal issue, this is quite refreshingly smart handling.
Our judicial system will take years to come to a conclusion.Meanwhile culprits will enjoy luxury of five star hotels at our cost.Media will also have some MASSALA to keep us entertained by different stories.Pakistan will continue defending their stand for MORE PROOF to arrest those terrorists moving freely in Pakistan.
@eMirzad please don't say it as a war against Islam, these statements instigate people of one religion against another this is India not like other countries where people have to suffer from various kinds of discrimination due to their race , religion etc. Be rational when blast occurs , or when a bullet is fired by terrorists it does not pinpoint Hindus only , Muslims also suffer from this!!!!!
I strongly pray to god one thing, Prophet Mohammad should born once again and tell all Muslims, not to follow violence, destruction. But suspicion is that, then born again Prophet will be stamped as UN-Islamic.
The comments here shows how emotional fellows Indians are. Everyone is obsessed with hanging. Will that reduce the terrorism in India..? The main thing is the root causes of terrorism have to be identified. hanging two or three persons wont have any impact. If one counts the total victims of terror attacks in India, it will come nearly 1000. That same number of minorities have been killed by fellows Indians in just a week's time in Gujarath, during 2002 communal carnage. But we can never see this much of hue and cry to punish the Gujarath culprits. why..? Oh.. we have one excuse for this -a train burn. If you go and ask the above mentioned terrorists, they also can give n-number of excuses for their acts. A matured and right thinking citizens are a wealth to the country, but 'mere emotional outburst' leads to nothing. It is strange to see that even 'the hindu' readers also can behave like this.
The truth is that we still having diversity within India..The minority people in India are also feeling the same..That's why the terrorist / politicians making use of them..we have to be united truly to become bonded walls against all the bad activities which kills a poor common man..
I hope 26/11's tragedy is going to be solved.The culprits of this tragedy must be caught and they should be hanged as they are the responsible of many lives. I hope this will be done as early as possible.
What is the use of arresting him.we cannot hang him to death.we have to waste a lot of money on him. we have to spend a lot of luxurious to him why all this? what is the use of arresting him
Over years, painstakingly, the investigating agencies try; many of the police and other forces loose their life in combating these terrorists. It is a pity to see that hardly any of them receive the suitable punishment and that Mrs Pratibha Patil simply pardons dangerous criminals. Such miserable politics in the country!! May God save us.
eMirzad: You term this as a war on Islam. I term the acts of violence by misguided Islamic youths as traitorship - against one's own country. The world over, the acts of violence against common innocent people is only viewed as cruel, barbaric acts. Your views can find sympathy only amongst others who hate India and Indians. In India, it is not just the Muslims who undergo troubles. There are countless others who also may go through troubles, but do not simply go around killing innocents in the name of religion. Just think about the number of Sikhs who were killed just after Indira Gandhi was killed. They just didn't go about unleashing terror on Indians ! They didn't side with Pakistan and go about killing Indians !
Does anyone realize that saying the govt. is playing 'votebank politics'(whatever that means) with Kasab is extremely insulting to law-abiding Indian Muslims (by implying that they support)? If we went about killing every "terror suspect" we laid our hands on, how are we different from the terrorists themselves? It is only the rule of law and the Indian constitution that define us - by saying that even a person accused of the most heinous crimes will receive a fair trial under our judicial system.
India should seriously re-evaluate the "peace talks" it is having with Pakistan, a country who continues to refuse to act against and harbour elements who wage war against India. The standards of proof they ask can only be gathered by local agencies, and they do not give us access. It is ridiculous trying to produce evidence to convince the guilty that he has done the crime.
@eMirzad Oh please! Kindly stop the victimhood narrative. It's getting less and less believable every time it is uttered. There is illiteracy, unfair treatment and unemployment in almost all the religious communities I can think of (in India especially). I do not see them killing people indiscriminately on such a consistent basis and purportedly in the name of religion. Why is it so easy to motivate these people to go out and kill innocent humans every time? As long as the victimhood narrative continues, nothing will change. Also, some of the most bigoted people I have met are well fed, educated and employed. Kindly look at some sections of the Pakistani elite. There are people who are 'liberal' enough to drink alcohol but they also think it is perfectly ok to harass the munafiqs and blow up their places of worship.
I feel bad that no one feels proud about the intelligence dept, which has continued to work hard to bring the culprits to justice. Kudos to them!! We may not have prevented previous attacks, but successes such as these are important in the cat and mouse game of terrorism.
Most of the commentaries on this site are dismally undemocratic. Why don't we understand that the modern penal code is not to be misused to exercise collective vengeance, but to protect civil society. You don't protect civil society by substituting modern justice by a cowboy lynch mentality in the sense of 'Hang them high!' I don't really care, if a terrorist is a Muslim or a Hindu. But I would be seriously alarmed, if our judiciary were to be swayed by opinions like those of the commentaries on this site. Such opinions would support the kind of 'justice' we know of from Nazi Germany. I think on the contrary, we can be proud of the Indian judiciary, if it takes time in dealing with the case, rather than announcing a quick and popular judgement catering to a collective need for vengeance.
@eMirzad : It is silly to paint this as war on islam. Instead it is far more mature to accept the faults as faults. If those belong to a religion, you do not have to be so conscious of it. It just shows that how much priority we give to religion over society and life of other human beings. One just cannot support his religion when the issues are far more serious than religion!! Please do not try to deviate this issue towards unemployment, lack of justice etc. there are half a billion indians that fall into this category. The sad fact is every one wants to have religion or caste on his shoulder and feel that he is the flag holder of that religion. It just lack of sense and lack of priorities not injustice!! Criminals will never get punished if the religion is bought into picture. This situation is not confined to one religion, it runs through all castes and regions. At the end -we decide whether we want to become another Pakistan or stable democracy!!
One more to enjoy a lavish life in the jail
We need Saudi's cooperation to arrest Dawood and his gang. Hope Saudi's cooperate with India and distance themselves from Pakistan
Going by past experience, even if convicted and sentenced to death by the Supreme Court, this guy can rest assured that he will not be executed by the Indian Govt.
I was eagerly looking for this news article.. I was waiting for praveen swami to reveal more details on this arrest.. What's interesting is the co-operation between the saudi and indian authorities in catching hold of this mindless crook..Hope india continues to work with saudi authorities as this will help us significantly in our counter-terrorism efforts.
There were lot of reports that the Saudi Arabian authorities funding number of Islamist terrorist groups acting against the Indian interests.Now that the same Saudi Arabian Govt helped in nabbing the most wanted terrorist Zabiuddin Ansari who was also one of the prime master mind of 26/11 Mumbai attack is really interesting. The Indian authorities should approach the Saudi Arabian Govt with more intelligence reports what ever they posses and try to nab more terrorists who are traveling from Pakistan frequently using bogus travel documents.
One can understand the frustration of the vast majority of muslims who shun terrorism. Whenever a terrorist act directed against the public at large occurs, suspicion points to terrorists inspired by jihad mentality. Unfortunately, except when the target is a muslim group or property, the police naturally suspect terrorist of the above kind. Based on actual convictions, it would seem the police are vindicated. Perhaps muslim leadership should do more to turn over extremists amongst their own following before the latter do harm. If this becomes a common practice, police would not have to suspect many innocent muslims.
@eMirzad: How would you feel if I justify Gujarat riots and killings using your logic that the root cause was burning of innocent Hindus in train? Nothing, absolutely nothing can justify killing innocents. Open your eyes. However hard it might be for you to understand but world does not go sleep thinking that how to destroy 'Islam'. World does have better things to do.
eMirzad: Why your logical ability is not able to make you utter few sympathising words for the victims' family too? why you are showing sympathy to a terrorist family only? shouldn't they have informed defence sources about his suspicious/rebellious behaviour?
@eMirzad Suppose if majority of terrorists are hindus, then think about how the world will view the the hindus. So please don't paint this as a war on Islam. Just that people are biased now more than ever based on their experience.. and the proof of pudding is in the eating.
Nothing will happen even if we were to get Jamal ul dawa chief alias the LeT chief in Indian police custody. After prolonged trail they all will be set free or vote bank politicians will let them free. I sympthise those brave security personal of 26/11 and the families who lost their near dears.
Another 19.5 Crore rupees of Public money will be wasted annually.
Kasab's guru is here, they can continue their philosophy sharing classes again.
Misguided youth of the society...young people have lots of energy but no direction at times. Doesn't matter which faith someone's ancestors adhered to, this person surely lacks faith in himself--and his society and nation. A large number of young people are already losing faith: resulting in destructive activities, while the elders are busy running after seats and positions.
these type of fellows has to be hanged first but our constitution never agree for that.
So what ? India has shamelessly become a Soft state. Any Tom Dick and Harry can attack the Parliament, kill thousands of innocent people and getaway scot free. So long as we are guided by the treacherous pseudo Secularism as State policy just for the sake of Vote Bank politics there is no hope for us. This fellow also will get royal treatment like Afzal Guru and Kasab. Is there no Patriot in our Country ?
I know it is very easy to criticize government or judiciary. But we can not stop ourselves when we observe the pace with which justice is brought in this country. I do not know how much time is required to prosecute a terrorist who is responsible for the massacre which is witnessed by the whole world. At least the cases which involve strong sentiments like Kasab, should be proceeded fast, because this forge a general negative impression in the minds of a common man. You can catch as many terrorist you want but it is pointless if you can't prosecute them and set some examples for future.
Our record of dealing (leave aside punishing) with terrorists leads me to believe strongly that nothing will ever happen to this man, he will continue to get VIP treatment in jail and may be after his release, our secular political parties will queue up to offer party ticket for assembly poll.
So that's it. Hats off to those who have arrested him. Now we have one more to eat away our taxes. Why arresting him and giving him a trial? Just extract the necessary information and execute him as soon as possible. Please avoid another Kandahar incident.
Abu Hamza is now sarkari DAMAD, because before 10 year our judicial process will not complete and after this his mercy petition will be before our president and our president like P.Patil Can do any thing.
Guilty terrorists should be given death sentence. In the same token any action against innocent will only protect and encourage guilty. A curious note is that these terrorists must be stupid to hang out as if nothing happened.
With a little knowledge of English, I want to bring the use of 'audacious' word in your notice. 'Audacious' is often used in positive sense and its use in negative is rare. Therefore when we talk about crimes we should refrain the use of such positive words for it makes the crime and criminals feel that they have done a BOLD job. Please comment if I am wrong.
i agree with dutt. some more exchequers money to be spent on good briyani etc..on this person also. Let the police enjoy catching these persons and government enjoy spending on these murderers!!!!!!!!
India should be more aggressive in tackling terror. Just like Americans do, shooting Osama right in the head when he could have been arrested and lots of information about Pakistan's agencies could have been revealed, but this was not even tried, people smell a rat there. Still, no nation came forward to criticize their cowardly act. Drawing parallel to the incident India need not be afraid of any religious community or human right community or any other powerful nation, punish them for their deed outside the purview of law..
Don't allow him to go alone to the loo when transporting him, or to get admitted to the hospital. That is where they usually escape.
People are so cruel that the suspect is still alleged, but his family suffered so much from that even his sister was given up from her marriage and people have cut off relationship with the family. As long as India (and world at large) choose to ignore the root cause of the industry of terrorism and sincerely work towards removing it, there will be continuous chain reaction, unfortunately of which only innocents (and majority muslims) will be victims. The root cause of this are injustice, lack of education, lack of employment. This war is not against terror, its against Islam. plain and simple. If he is guilty , let judiciary decide that, with swift and fair justice.
Another arrest of terrorist but of what use. He will be enjoying a lavish life in the jail. His case will go on and on for the years.
With key suspect arrested, can Kasab be executed to death now?
Forget the Geneva Converntion (even US and UK did not adhere to it). Make Hamsa spill the beans and ensure that every individual he names is brought to book. We could borrow a leaf from the US techniques in G'Bay. No mercy should be shown to murderers. Because of people like him, the enitre Islamic community is viewed with suspicion.
This person, if proven guilty, should be sentenced to such a punishment that this case can serve as an example for other.
Abu Hamza will now join the ranks of Mohd Afzal and Ajmal Kasab for VIP treatment because we ourselves will ensure that like the other two, he will never face the gallows. After all, the vote bank of his religious community is far more important than the security of our citizens' lives.
what would happen by catching hamza or any other terrorist we have no power to hang them to death so what this means to take him custody one call will come to us and he will be released .
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