Lashkar, ISI involved in Mumbai terror: US

Zeenews Bureau

Islamabad, Dec 04: US told Pakistan it has evidence of LeT’s involvement in last week’s Mumbai terror attacks and that it should arrest its chief Hafeez Sayeed.

Sources close to the talks between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Pakistan leadership have revealed that US has shared evidence of LeT’s involvement in the attacks that killed 200 and injured over 300.

Pakistan has also been told that it was hard to believe the country’s armed forces, including the ISI, were not in the know of the ghastly terror operation.

However, in an interview with an Indian publication, LeT chief Hafeez has denied his organisation is involved in the terror attacks. He also alleged that Indian intelligence agencies' failure to prevent the attacks was leading them to blame Pakistan.

A veteran CIA analyst also claimed earlier in the day that Mumbai attackers had ISI links.

"If there's anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it is finding out the "extent of its(LeT) current ties to the Pakistani intelligence service(Inter Services Intelligence)," said Bruce Riedel in Washington.

Meanwhile Indian authorities have claimed that they have ‘incontrovertible’ proof about ISI involvement in the attacks. Sleuths are aware of who trained the 10 terrorists and where the training took place in Pakistan. This and other pieces of evidence have been shared with the US, sources reveal.

Evidence collected in probes so far has pointed to two members of outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba as masterminds in the attacks, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

The men, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil, are believed to be in Pakistan, the officials said. Lakhvi was identified as the group's operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in Kashmir and other parts of India.

The lone surviving gunman in the assault, Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told police Lakhvi recruited him for the operation, and the assailants called Muzammil on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel en route to Mumbai. During the attacks, the gunmen used mobile phones taken from hotel guests to place calls to Lahore.

But it has come to light that the US knows more about the attacks that earlier thought. Its troops being stationed in Pakistan, the US has reportedly got more evidence about Pakistan’s role. It is aware of the exact route that the terrorists took from Karachi to Mumbai and the same has been shared with Pakistani authorities.