Suspected Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative Major Sameer Ali visited the Karachi control room of the 26/11 attacks when the mayhem engulfed Mumbai and gave several instructions to LeT ‘commander’ Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
This was stated by Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jindal during his interrogation by the security agencies, official sources said.
Pakistani-American LeT operative David Headley too had given information about Major Sameer’s role in the 26/11 attacks.
Another suspected ISI officer Sajid Mir, who was also involved in the Mumbai attacks and conspiracy to carry out other terror acts in India, helped Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists involved in the 26/11 strikes, to get training in Baitul Mujahideen.
Mir was a key motivator and organiser of the Mumbai attacks which claimed 166 lives, Jindal told interrogators.
When the Mumbai attack was over, Major Sameer told all those present in the control room to disperse and go underground, the sources said.
While Jindal went back to Baitul Mujahideen, Lakhvi stayed at a protected house with his three wives.
Following international pressure, a few weeks after 26/11, sleuths of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency raided the control room and destroyed it, the sources said.
Months later, when FIA raided Baitul Mujahideen camp, they arrested Lakhvi from there.
Jindal said he along with another LeT terrorist Abu Qahfa had managed to escape from the terror camp through a rear gate.
Escaping from Baitul Mujahideen, Jindal went to Faisalabad where he stayed for a couple of months before returning to Muzafarabad, the capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Soon, Jindal was introduced to a senior ISI officer Colonel Hamza, who assured him all help including providing shelter and finance.
Jindal then travelled to Rawalpindi and with the assistance of Colonel Hamza, left for Saudi Arabia in April 2011.
To remain in police custody
Earlier today, a city court had given the custody of Jindal to Delhi Police for another 15 days. The court said his interrogation by the Delhi police Special Cell will help other agencies as well in their investigation.
“I have given thoughtful consideration to the arguments advanced by all the agencies and out of all of them, I am impressed most with the case of Special Cell of Delhi Police wherein this accused has already been in custody for 15 days,” Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav said.
