WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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India names Pakistani masterminds, date plot to 07
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-05 15:13 Ansari linked up with Lashkar while working at a printing press in Dubai. He was taken by sea to Pakistan to the Lashkar camp in Muzaffarabad and received a false Pakistani passport and citizenship papers, which police recovered when he was arrested. In 2007, Ansari said, he traveled to Katmandu, Nepal, and then crossed back into India and settled in Mumbai, where he conducted reconnaissance for a future attack, Yash said. He was arrested Feb. 10 in the northern city of Rampur after suspected Muslim militants attacked a police camp, killing eight constables. He said he was there to collect weapons to bring to Mumbai for a future attack. Yash said Ansari's arrest did not derail Lashkar's plans for an attack. "When they found that their mole in Bombay had been caught...they carried out the operations in a different way," he said. Meanwhile, police officers said they were trying to get as much detail as possible from Kasab. "A terrorist of this sort is never cooperative. We have to extract information," said Deven Bharti, the head of the Mumbai crime branch. Indian police are known to use interrogation methods that would be regarded as torture in the West, including questioning suspects drugged with "truth serum." Bharti provided no details on interrogation techniques, but said "truth serum" would probably be used next week. He did not specify what drug would be used. During questioning, details of Kasab's recruitment by Lashkar began to emerge, said police, describing him as fourth grade dropout from an impoverished village who was gravitating to a life of crime. "Lashkar recruited him, preying on a combination of his religious sentiments and his poverty," said Maria. The revelations came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with leaders in Islamabad after visiting India's capital -- part of a US effort to pressure Pakistan to share more intelligence and pursue terrorist cells believed to be rooted in the country. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised Rice his country would take "strong action" against any elements in Pakistan involved in the siege. On Thursday, the US Treasury Department designated as terrorists four individuals who hold leadership positions in Lashkar, including Lakhvi, and ordered any of their US assets to be frozen. Also named were Muhammad Saeed, the group's leader; Haji Muhammad Ashraf, its chief of finance; and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, a financier with the group. Meanwhile, India put its airports on alert following threats of possible airborne attacks. Security forces swarmed New Delhi's international airport early Friday after the sound of gunfire was heard, police said, but no one was injured or killed. Police said it was not a terrorist incident. The warning received by the airports "spoke of possibility of aircraft being hijacked by terrorists," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, told reporters Thursday. The alert focused on three major airports -- New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai -- but security was stepped up across India. Several extra layers of security were set up and some passengers' bags were scanned for explosives. "Passengers have been asked to pass through six-stage security checks," said Brij Lal, a senior police official organizing security at the airport in the northern city of Lucknow. Nirmala Sharma, a passenger who flew from New Delhi to Lucknow, said her bags were checked a half dozen times and she went through a metal detector three times. "Sometimes it seemed tedious, but it seems to be the need of the hour," she said. |
