Author: Sheela Bhatt
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: February 12, 2009
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/feb/12mumterror-26-11-had-local-help-mumbai-police.htm
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor on
Thursday stated on record that Indians were involved in the terror attack
on Mumbai last November.
In a tape-recorded conversation with the media
at the Mumbai Police headquarters at Crawford Market, Gafoor said that 16
Indians are suspected to be involved in the Mumbai attacks, besides the two
who have already been arrested.
None of them is a resident of Mumbai, he said,
adding that they are all from 'North India'.
When rediff.com asked him," Can we say
that the Mumbai police is, for the first time, claiming that there was local
involvement in the Mumbai attacks," an unusually confident Gafoor replied,
"The Mumbai police is not claming. This is a fact."
He added that the names of the 16 accused
have been sent to Islamabad, because the information received by the Mumbai
police suggested that they had fled to Pakistan.
"None of the Indians were the masterminds
or handlers of the attack," he stressed in response to another question
by rediff.com.
The sensational statement from the police
commissioner, which has serious diplomatic, political and legal ramifications,
came on the day that Pakistan unexpectedly admitted that 'part of the conspiracy'
behind the Mumbai terror attacks was planned in its territory.
It is relevant that Gafoor chose this very day to reveal this stunning fact
about the Mumbai terror attack -- when India was savouring the fruits of coercive
diplomacy with the help of United States, Britain, France and Germany.
Gafoor said, "Pakistan's admission shows
the success of so many police organisations, which got together to fight.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Scotland Yard, the Singapore police,
the French police and the German police have helped us."
The police forces of these countries have
helped expedite the investigations into the Mumbai terror attack, which where
led by Joint Commissioner (Crime) of Mumbai Police Rakesh Maria.
The media had gathered at the Mumbai Police
HQ for Gafoor's reaction to Pakistan's admission. The police chief's surprising
revelation came when he was asked, "Besides Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin,
has any other local support for the attacks been found, during the course
of the investigation?"
He replied, "Local means fellows who
have acted much earlier. They are Indians."
When asked if the local elements had been
arrested, Gafoor said, "Only two (Fahim Ansari and Sabahudin) have been
arrested. The others have disappeared".
He added that the Indians involved in the
terror attack had conducted a reconnaissance of the areas that were targeted
and provided financial support for the operation, after being trained in Pakistan.
When rediff.com asked him specifically if
all of them were connected to the attack on Mumbai, Gafoor replied in the
affirmative.
Initially, Gafoor said that there could be
14 to 16 Indians involved in the attack, he later clarified that these included
some Pakistani nationals.
The locals who helped carry out the attacks
came to Mumbai many months ago and stayed here, he said.
Indian terrorist Riyaz Bhatkal is not among
the names that were sent to Pakistan, Gafoor said. Terrorists named in the
dossier, which was handed over to Pakistan by India, did not include any members
of the Indian Mujahideen, he said.
Gafoor added that the investigations so far
had not found any links about IM leader Bhatkal's involvement in the attack.
Responding to rediff.com's query, he categorically
stated that all nine terrorists killed during the terror siege were Pakistanis,
there was no one from India or Bangladesh among them.
A senior Congress leader and one of the key
strategists of the party explained the rationale behind Gafoor's revelations.
He said, "It was India's strategy to wait for Islamabad to first accept
that the Mumbai attack was planned inside Pakistan. Before we revealed the
involvement of Indians in the attack, it was necessary that they admit the
involvement of Pakistan-based people. They would have ducked the issue if
we had revealed all the facts. Since Pakistan has now admitted that Pakistani-based
elements masterminded the attack and that Kasab (the lone terrorist arrested
during the terror strike) and the other terrorists were Pakistanis, there
is no harm in revealing facts that are already known to the Mumbai police
and the government."
The source added, "Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi jumped the queue and gave an immature statement. He should have
waited till the chargesheet in the case had been filed."
Gafoor, however, is aware of the importance
of the diplomatic win, when Pakistan has partially admitted the claims made
by the Mumbai police and the Indian government. He admitted, "It is a
very big achievement, not only for the Mumbai police but also for the entire
country."
He refused to comment on Pakistan Interior
Minister Rehman Malik's statement about the investigation being conducted
by the neighbouring country.
Malik had identified Hamad Amin Sadiq as the
main operator who facilitated and coordinated the Mumbai attack.
When queried if Sadiq's name had cropped during
his team's investigations, Gafoor evaded a direct reply by saying, "We
have not received any official communication from Pakistan. We are only going
by what is being said."
When the question was repeated again, the police commissioner said, "We
had given 13-14 names to Pakistan. I would not like to disclose the names
at this moment."
He refused to divulge if there were any common
names in the list given by Malik and those mentioned in India's dossier on
terror.
Gafoor added that none of the terrorists took
any kind of help or talked to anyone during the 60-hour siege.
He told the media persons that the French government had filed a case based
on the deaths of its citizens in the Mumbai attack. France may ask for Kasab's
extradition, he said, but added that the Indian courts would decide whether
to hand over the terrorist's custody.
Crime should be investigated without barriers
of borders or nationality, emphasised Gafoor.
He reiterated that the "Mumbai attack was certainly a Lashkar-e-Tayiba
operation. There is no doubt about it." But he did not rule out possibility
of the terror attack being linked to the "Al Qaeda or any such organisation".
When asked about the possible links of Pakistan
terrorists in Italy, Russia and Spain, he said, "The Voice over Internet
Protocol operates in a virtual space and the link was through some of these
countries. There is nothing physical about it."
Gafoor added that the Kasab's statement on the 26/11 attack had already been
recorded.
According to the police chief, reports about
the terrorists making a halt at Gujarat, before proceeding to Mumbai, were
not true. The records of the Global Positioning System, which was found at
the abandoned ship Kuber, prove this theory wrong, he said.
Speaking about how the terrorists reached
Mumbai, Gafoor stuck to the earlier version stated by the Mumbai police. The
terrorists came from Karachi in the ship Al Husseini, then they hijacked Indian
ship Kuber, after which they sailed in dinghies to reach the Mumbai coast,
he said.
When asked to comment on reports about Pakistan
accepting the evidence put forward by the FBI and other foreign police agencies,
and not reacting enough to the Indian dossier, Gafoor said, "I think
there is no difference between what we have provided and what the FBI has
provided because both of us are talking the truth. It has to be the same."
