FBI team to visit Pakistan on Feb. 27 to grill Lakhvi, Zarar Shah

Islamabad, Feb 24 (ANI): A seven member FBI team is arriving here on February 27 to grill the Mumbai terror attacks masterminds arrested by Pakistani authorities in order to establish the authenticity of Pakistan's findings and get further information from the 26/11 accused.

The FBI team will interact with officials of FIA and Interior Ministry to discuss the findings of their probe into the Mumbai attacks.

FBI Director Robert Mueller is also expected to visit Islamabad on March 4, The News reported.

The six persons to be interrogated by the FBI team include masterminds Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah; main facilitator of the attack Hamad Amin Sadiq; Abu Alqama alias Mazhar Iqbal; Javed Iqbal; and another unidentified suspect.

The authorities had accused eight people of being behind the attacks, but were able to arrest only six of them, while another two still remain at large.

"The FBI team would question the six accused, who are being held in Pakistan and would also meet the investigators working on the case to discuss their findings so far," The Dawn quoted a well placed source, as saying.

The government, it is said, agreed to direct interrogation of the accused by FBI after intense international pressure.

"There was exchange of information taking place between FBI and Pakistani investigators, but so far the government was reluctant to allow direct access of the foreign sleuths to the accused," the source said.

The US team is primarily interested in questioning the accused on the basis of the preliminary findings shared by Pakistan with India and the US.

"The main objectives before the team are to establish the authenticity of Pakistani findings and get further information from the accused," the source said. (ANI)