Author: IANS
Publication: The Hindu
Date: March 1, 2009
URL: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200903010914.htm
The Pakistan-based terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba,
had plans to set up an operational base in a rented accommodation in posh
Colaba in south Mumbai in early 2008 to coordinate the 26/11 terror plan,
according to investigators.
The plan could not materialise because of
some reasons, and finally, the 'operational base' was set up in Room No.14,
Batatawala Chawl, Nagpada, also in south Mumbai.
Incidentally, Badhwar Park in Colaba where
the LeT planned to set up the operational base, is an exclusive multi-storeyed
residential complex, housing some of the top officers of Indian Railways (IR),
including high-ranking functionaries of Central Railway, Western Railway and
Konkan Railway.
The choice of Badhwar Park was considered
crucial to the entire scheme of the conspiracy for its proximity to the targeted
locations.
This was corroborated by the fact that the
terrorists selected the Machhimar (fishermen's) Colony, opposite Badhwar Park,
as the landing point and then dispersed to their respective destinations in
five groups.
Details in the 11,000-plus page Mumbai Police
charge sheet point to the Mumbai terror mission of the LeT as a well-planned
strategy of its chief Hafiz Sayyed and chief of operations Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi, according to Assistant Commissioner of Police A.T. Duraphe.
Indications are that the conspiracy could
have been hatched in mid-2007 and finally implemented a year later, on November
26, 2008.
One of the conspirators, Fahim Ansari, originally
a resident of Motilal Nagar, Goregaon suburb in north-west Mumbai, was arrested
in February 2008 by the Uttar Pradesh police and was handed over to Mumbai
Police December 18, 2008. Between December 2007 and January 2008, under an
assumed name of Sahil Pawaskar, he made unsuccessful attempts to rent a flat
in the Badhwar Park.
Later, from the Nagpada room, Ansari conducted
detailed reccee of iconic and important locations in Mumbai. He even procured
a Reliance mobile number for his communications.
To camouflage his intentions, Ansari, known
by over half a dozen aliases, enrolled himself for a course with SoftPro Computer
Educational Council, located at Engineering Building, right opposite the Bombay
Stock Exchange building - which was targeted in the March 12, 1993, terror
attacks.
After completing the detailed groundwork,
Ansari handed over the maps and other papers to Sabahuddin Ahmed, an important
LeT functionary in India.
On his part, Sabahuddin got in touch with
the LeT's Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Abu Kaahfa and passed on the information
to them.
"It was these maps and directions which
enabled the arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir, alias Kasab, and his nine
associates to arrive with absolute precision at the targeted locations and
to comprehend the topography and layout of the targets," Duraphe noted.
When they finally struck November 26, 2008,
they succeeded in killing over 170 people and injuring 300 more in the terror
attack which lasted nearly 60 hours.
