26/11 attacks: Had we not stopped it, Kasab would have passed off as Samir Choudhary

New Delhi, Nov 26: The terrorists were on a rampage in Mumbai, this day, 12 years back. Ajmal Kasab, whose images were flashed across the media carried with him a card that identified him as Samir Choudhary.

Rakesh Maria, the lead investigator of the case wrote in his book "Let Me Say It Now" that the identification card stated that he was a student of a college in Hyderabad. It also had a Bangalore address.

To add to this, when the terrorists came out on the streets, they were seen with saffron threads. This was a clear attempt to divert the attention from Pakistan and make it look at though the attacks were carried out by the Hindus in India.

While the writing on the wall was clear that it was Pakistan and only Pakistan which orchestrated the attack, the likes of A R Antulay of the Congress went on to say that there is more than what meets the eye. He demanded a separate probe into the killing of the ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

This was followed by an event attended by Congress leader, Digvijaya Singh attending the launch of a book titled "RSS ki Saazish-26/11". The attack was also blamed on the CIA, Mossad and RSS by group editor of Roznama Rashtriya Sahara, Aziz Burney.

If one goes by the manner in which the ISI operates, it is clear that it carries out attacks and blames it on India. This is one of the primary reasons why it nurtured home grown terror groups such as the SIMI and Indian Mujahideen. The primary intention of getting locals to carry out attacks was to ensure that the country burns, but the ISI would continue to have the deniability factor.

During the probe into the attack, a book titled, 'Who Killed Karkare,' was released by former inspector general of police, S M Mushrif. He blamed the overall attack on Pakistan, but noted that the killing of Karkare was the handiwork of the right wing groups.

Maria writes in his book that there was a deliberate attempt to manufacture a Hindu terror plot. Had it not been stopped Ajmal Kasab would have been known as Samir Choudhary, Maria also said.

Now speaking of the attempt to manufacture a Hindu terror bogey, it would be interesting to re-visit the confession of David Headley, the reconnaissance man of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

During my operation I also picked up red threads that are worn by Hindus and handed it over to the Lashkar men. These threads were worn by the ten men and the Lashkar was pleased with me since they thought that this would create a diversion when investigations would commence, Headley said.

The Lashkar men made another attempt to carry out the attack in the first week of November, but this operation failed since they were unable to capture an Indian boat and use it to land at Mumbai.

I had thought that this operation had fizzled out and began focusing on the Denmark operation which we called as the Mickey Mouse project. However, on November 26th I received an SMS from Sajid asking me to switch on the television and the operation had begun.

After the attacks were completed I met with Sajid and he told me that they did try and secure the release of Kasab but that did not work. The plan to prolong the operation at VT too was cut short and the attackers ended up killing some policemen.