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Attackers used 3 boats

ISLAMABAD: The Mumbai attackers set out to sea towards their target from the Thatta coast in Karachi. They used three boats, not one.

The crews of two of the boats have been traced; the shop from which the attackers bought an engine for the inflatable dinghy in which they completed the last leg of their journey to Mumbai has been traced; bank accounts in Pakistan used by the conspirators have been unearthed; their hideouts in Karachi have been located.

These revelations are contained in the report of the Federal Investigation Agency enquiry into the Mumbai attacks, based on the information provided by India in the so-called Mumbai Dossier.

It is on the basis of this investigation that Pakistan has made the unprecedented move of registering a case against eight Pakistani nationals on charges of conspiracy, abetment and facilitation of a terrorist attack in India.

Rehman Malik, who heads the Interior Ministry, said the investigators chased several “signals” provided in the dossier to come up with their report.

Confirming that the engine of the dinghy was bought in Pakistan, Mr. Malik said the investigators had traced the shop and the owner from where a man he identified only as “one Khan” bought the engine. Khan also bought life-jackets and other sea-travel related items from this shop.

The owner of the shop had a contact number that Khan had given him. The FIA found the number terminated, but the telephone number from which the termination request was made opened out the investigation further.

One of the leads, Mr. Malik said, went to a Pakistani bank, which he declined to name. “There was an account in the name of somebody [who] was related to the acts of terrorism,” he said.

The account in turn led the investigators to Hamad Amin Sadiq, who Mr. Malik described as a “mastermind” of the attacks.

“He was basically the main operator,” Mr. Malik said. His interrogation led to the identification of two more accounts with a number of “transactions going in and out” of Pakistan. He also led the FIA team to the Karachi hideouts of the attackers and their handlers, one in Azizabad and the other in the Creek area of the city.

The attackers used three boats to travel towards Mumbai. One was the Al-Husseini, as Indian investigators had found. Mr. Malik said this boat capsized in the sea, presumably after offloading its passengers. Another was the Al Fauz. He did not give details about the third boat.

When the Al Fauz returned after dropping the men off mid-sea, the crew repainted the boat and renamed it “Masha Allah.”

The crews of both the Al-Husseini and Al Fauz have been traced and are in custody and have given investigators a “full run-down.”

From them the investigators learnt that the attackers put out to sea twice for “some training” before setting out for Mumbai.

Besides these leads, Mr. Malik said, investigators also followed the cyber leads, which led to the Barcelona-based Javed Iqbal, who paid $238, apparently for VOIP calls through Callphonex, an internet phone company based in Houston, Texas.

“Don’t ask me how I brought him here, but we lured him back to Pakistan, and he has been arrested,” he said. “These leads and the finance trail and the engine have given us a complete picture.”

A well-known moneychanger in Pakistan, Paracha Exchange, was also involved in making the payment. The owner of the exchange, who used the identity card of his watchman to transfer the money, has been arrested, and so has the watchman. The bewildering cyber trail also led to Italy, Austria, and Russia. Thuraya satellite phone used by the attackers was registered in a Middle Eastern country. Mr. Malik did not say which one.

Mr. Malik clarified that when he said earlier that investigations were leading abroad, it was “misunderstood” to mean the planning was done in another country.

“But the systems of other countries have been used,” he said, appealing to authorities in these countries also to help in the Pakistani investigations.

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