Two local suspects in 26/11 attacks sent to police custody

Two suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmad, who were detained in UP, have been sent to the Mumbai police custody till December 31 in connection with the Mumbai terror strikes.

Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) are expecting that these two men, who may have provided local help to the 26/11 perpetrators, could possibly provide some crucial lead in the probe.

The duo – Ansari and Ahmad –were brought from UP on Wednesday night and produced in the Metropolitan court here on Thursday. Magistrate N.N. Shrimangale said Ansari and Sabahuddin were Lashkar operatives and their alleged links with Mumbai attack terrorists had to be probed.

A police officer said that they had information that these people had surveyed the Mumbai terror struck sites before and provided the details to their groups.

The police suspect that Ansari had supplied a CD with the CST and other target locations to Amir Qasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker arrested by the Mumbai police. The police said that during the interrogation of Qasab, he said he was shown a CD with pictures of target locations. The police had earlier recovered maps of Taj and Oberoi-Trident Hotels from Ansari.

The ATS claims that Ansari and Ahmad had attended training camps similar to the one attended by Qasab and they may even have shared the same handler from the LeT.

Ansari and Ahmad were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for carrying out attack on the CRPF camp in Rampur on January 1 this year. While Ansari was arrested by the UP Special Task Force from Rampur on Feb 10, his accomplice Ahmad was detained a day later from Lucknow along with two Pakistani nationals. They had been in UP jail ever since.

Sabahuddin is also involved in the attack on Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, on December 29, 2005. Ansari belongs to Mumbai while Sabahuddin hails from Madhubani, Bihar.

Mumbai police are probing whether the 10 terrorists who massacred more than 170 people including foreign nationals on Nov 26 had any local help.

(Agencies)