Author: ANI
Publication: Expressindia.com
Date: February 20, 2009
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/26-11-masterminds-had-320-targets-on-their-hit-list/426017/
Pakistan based banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba,
which plotted and executed the Mumbai carnage, killing more than 170 people,
had placed India's financial hub among 320 potential targets around the world
to carry out commando-style terror attacks.
Western intelligence agencies have accessed
the computer and email account of Lashkar's communications chief, Zarar Shah,
and found a list of possible targets, only 20 of which were in India.
According to a report in the 'Guardian', the
LeT wanted to carry out such strikes beyond India to create terror. Shah and
Lashkars operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, two of the main plotters of
the Mumbai carnage, are now in Pakistan Police custody.
Pakistan's decision to bring criminal charges
against nine men accused of involvement in the Mumbai attack has partly placated
Indian officials.
The US has been trying behind the scenes to
co-ordinate intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan.
Intelligence agencies have warned that Mumbai
raises the spectre of a new style of terrorist assault when 10 heavily armed
gunmen created mayhem for three days and brought the city of 19 million people
to a halt.
Nine of the gunmen were killed, but the lone
survivor has given Indian investigators a full confession that the assault
was planned in Pakistan by LeT.
There has been some speculation that raids
in Spain in which netted 12 men including an Indian and 11 Pakistanis arrested
were a result of the investigations into Lashkar's role in the Mumbai attacks.
