Mumbai Crime Branch seeks permission to interrogate Kasab

Mumbai, Aug 6: Now that a court here has allowed key 26/11 handler Zaibuddin Ansari alias

to remain in their custody till Aug 13, the Mumbai Crime Branch has sought permission to again interrogate his most famous 'trainee'

.

If the Maharashtra government accepts the request, the latter is likely to be confronted with Ansari. Both of them have already disclosed how ten Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives carried out the terror attacks here in Nov 2008.

Though the two accounts vary in some respects, the Crime Branch wants to see whether the deadly duo will spill more details of the planning that was done in Pakistan.

Post his arrest at the Indira Gandhi international airport in New Delhi on Jun 21, Ansari told the Indian police that officers of the Directorate for Inter Services Intelligence and LeT leaders including its founder Hafiz Saeed were all present in a control room at Karachi during the three days Mumbai was held to ransom.

According to Ansari, he and five other handlers gave directions to the ten terrorists from that very room. Kasab had earlier revealed that 13 handlers including a person named Jundal had come to see him and his nine accomplices board the Al Hussain, the ship in which the group set sail from Karachi, on Nov 23, 2008.

Incidentally, Ansari avers that he was not among those who saw the terrorists off. However, he has admitted to attending a LeT camp wherein Kasab was given training. Ansari and Kasab are said to have shared a room at that time.

Kasab, who is lodged in a special cell at the Arthur Road jail here, has claimed that Jundal taught the terrorists Hindi and also provided them vital information about parts of India's commercial capital.

His area-specific tips enabled the group to simultaneously attack over eight sites in south Mumbai soon after they came ashore at two locations in Colaba.

OneIndia News