JUNDAL CLAIMS QAEDA TRAINED 26/11 HIT SQUAD
Terror training in Nepal
In what might explain the increased American interest in arrested terrorist Abu Jundal, he made the startling disclosure to interrogators recently that the 26/11 terrorists were trained by hardcore al Qaeda militants at a Lashkar-eTayyaba camp near the Pakistan-Iran border.
Jundal, the highest-ranking Indian commander of LeT, claimed there was a “great degree of coordination now between Lashkar, al Qaeda and even the Taliban”. These disclosures are part of Jundal’s interrogation report, details of which have been accessed by this newspaper.
A top government functionary said that since the US now views Lashkar to be as much of a threat as the Taliban and al Qaeda, it has been keeping tabs on developments related to Jundal. “The US agencies are very keen to know if Jundal can provide more details about al Qaeda and the Taliban,” the official added.
The external affairs and home ministries are, meanwhile, finalising documents to secure the extradition of Mohammed Fasih, whose arrest in Saudi Arabia has been confirmed. Fasih is wanted for the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast in Bengaluru and the Jama Masjid attack in Delhi.
Sources said the government will try to get the Saudis to deport Fasih even faster than Jundal. The LeT operative told that since Lashkar did not want to take chances in the Mumbai attack, it decided to rope in al Qaeda for training.
The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba felt that hardcore al Qaeda terrorists could provide foolproof training to the module used to attack Mumbai.
Initially, sources said, there were 22 to 25 militants in the group that was to attack Mumbai. But since al Qaeda’s training was so intense that more than half of them dropped out and only 10 were selected for the final onslaught.
“Had all the 25 militants completed the training and made it to Mumbai the carnage would have been much worse,” a senior investigating official said.
Jundal claims that though he did visit Lashkar’s training facility at the Pakistan-Iran border but he was not present during the time that the Mumbai module was undergoing training there. Indian investigating agencies asked Jundal to identify the location of the camp with help of Google map but Jundal failed to do so,
Sayed Zabiuddin alias Abu Jundal, a prize catch in 26/11 terror case, picked up his first lessons in terrorism when Lashkar-e-Tayyaba terrorist Mohammed Aslam alias Aslam Kashmiri arranged for his arms training in Nepal in 2004. Claiming to be indoctrinated after the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002, 30-year-old Jundal told interrogators that he was introduced to by Aslam Kashmiri, a resident of Hasplote in Thanamandi of Rajouri in Jammu region. According to his interrogation report submitted to the Union home ministry, Jundal said that four youths from Maharashtra and Gujarat were handed over to Aslam Kashmiri for exfiltration through Poonch region in 2004 but they were killed by Army raising suspicions about Kashmiri’s role. Official sources said on Sunday that Aslam Kashmiri again approached Jundal and Fayaz Kagzi and asked them to accompany him for arms training but the killing of four youths had raised doubts that he could have been working for Army. sources added. Meanwhile, both the home ministry and external affairs ministry are finalising the documents for the extradition of Mohammed Fasih fol- lowing the confirmation of his arrest in Saudi Arabia. Fasih is wanted in the blast at Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru and the Jama Masjid attack.