IB suspects logistical role for local modules

An Intelligence Bureau official told rediff.com that the Mumbai terror attacks were one of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba's most meticulously planned operations.

The Lashkar, he suspects, used modules from both Pakistan and India and also borrowed methodology from Al Qaeda for the attacks.

In the initial stages of the operation, the IB suspects the Lashkar relied heavily on Pakistan-based gangster Dawood Ibrahim for logistics. Before Lashkar operative Fahim Ansari was sent to Mumbai to gather information on the likely targets, the IB official said Ibrahim helped draw up a list of potential spots.

Ibrahim, who masterminded the Mumbai serial blasts of March 12, 1993, is suspected of having asked his city-based gangsters to provide logistical support for the attacks. While the Taj Mahal hotel, the Oberoi and Trident hotels and the Bombay Stock Exchange figured in the initial plan, Nariman House was chosen at a later stage, IB sources say.

The banned Students Islamic Movement of India and the Indian Mujahideen, the IB sources suspect, may have helped with the creation of fake identity cards and the supply of SIM cards.

SIMI activists may have organised the fake ID cards for the terrorists; these were made in Bangalore and Hyderabad, investigations reveal. The Bangalore police has arrested an SIMI activist, Saifulla, in this connection.

Once the fake ids and SIM cards were arranged, the IB sources say a Lashkar operative got in touch with a member of the Indian Mujahideen. He wanted an e-mail to be sent by an hitherto unknown outfit called the Deccan Mujahideen after the attacks were launched to create the impression that Indians were responsible for the acts of terror.