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60 hours: How terrorists planned, executed 26/11

TimePublished on Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 07:07, Updated on Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 10:38 in India section

THE SIEGE: Mumbai was held hostage for 60 hours by 10 terrorists in November 2008.

THE SIEGE: Mumbai was held hostage for 60 hours by 10 terrorists in November 2008.


          
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Mumbai, the jewel in India’s crown with its glittering landmarks including the Taj Hotel, was to be the target. But the plan, the planners and the 10 men who would cold-bloodedly carry it all out came from far away.

There was unusual energy at the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) camp. Commander Hafeez Saeed and operational commander Zaki-ur-Rehman were satisfied with the progress of a special batch of 10 terrorists who were to carry out India’s deadliest terror strike.

They had coped well with months of tough training, mentally hardened for a bold suicide mission against India.

Months after getting caught, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab – the only terrorist captured alive during the 26/11 attack – described the indoctrination.

"It all depends on you and your life. You are still left in poverty while they (India) are ahead… He kept saying that keep killing till you are alive," Kasab said about his handlers.

Kasab's background was ideal for Hafeez Saeed's recruitment needs. His village Faridkot is in Punjab province's backward Okara district. At 21, the elementary school dropout was a daily-wage labourer, often without work.

He says his father, a poor dahi-wada seller, pushed him to join the LeT.

Kasab says he was told: "You will earn well. There will be no problem. So I thought why not".

Kasab joined the LeT in December 2007, initially just one among many recruits being given basic training – the Daura-e-Sufa.

"First there was training for a month. Once you learn then there is an advanced three-month training. Once you are ready then say now go get ready to die," Kasab told the police while interrogation.

Kasab was then selected for the second level – Daura-e-Aam which is learning the use military weapons.

"It was not given single handedly. There is a whole set up at Muridke, Muzaffarabad to train them. He was not trained alone, he was trained in batches along with a group of boys who were with him. So, there is a whole infrastructure of LeT. He has been trained in firing almost all automatic weapons like AK 47, pistols, grenade launchers, mortars. He has been trained how to fix up an IAD, how to diffuse it," Additional Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti explained.

To which Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria added, "The type of training, the handling of the weapons, the fixing of the timers, the batteries on the IADs, the lobbying of hand grenades, how to take cover, how to repulse an attack by the security agencies – this is something that cannot be taught by a layman, it has to be either by a serving serviceman or an ex-serviceman, somebody in the police force, somebody in the security agencies has to be involved in this training."

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