Lashkar made three attempts to kill Kasab: IB

As the special court in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail gets ready to pronounce the verdict in the 26/11 terror attacks case, Intelligence Bureau officials said Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba had tried to disrupt the trial by carrying out a series of attacks in India on at least three occasions in the last one year.

IB sources told rediff.com that they had received actionable intelligence to this effect.

Two of the intercepts picked up discussed a plot to kill the lone arrested terrorist Ajmal Kasab, while the other was a plot to set off a blast near the court area where the trial is being conducted.

The first attempt to kill Kasab was made four months after his arrest, when the Lashkar had decided to use the services of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's gang, the IB sources said.

The IB said the Lashkar had wanted Kasab killed before he started talking to the interrogators to stop him from revealing information about the organisation.

Dawood's gang had agreed to this and had even hired a hitman in Mumbai to carry out the task, the sources said.

The Mumbai police was unable to apprehend the hitman, but in turn increased the security cover for Kasab, making a strike impossible.

After this operation failed, the Lashkar made another attempt to kill Kasab using one of its own operatives. The outfit planned to carry out a suicide attack on the court premises with a heavy load of RDX to cause maximum damage.

However, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had reportedly advised the LeT to withdraw this plan due to the immense international pressure that built up after India started sending dossiers to Pakistan.

Islamabad had then been denying that Kasab was a Pakistani, and the ISI advised the LeT that the operation to kill him might confirm India's claims, said IB sources.

The third attempt was to set off a series of explosions around the court premises.

This plan almost came through, but the Mumbai police had been quick in busting the attempt with the help of intelligence intercepts.

The LeT had contacted the cadres of the Indian Mujahideen and had also activated a couple of its sleeper cells in Maharashtra to carry out this plan. The terrorists had decided to move RDX from across the border into India for this job. According to the IB, this operation was planned on a very large scale and would have inflicted maximum damage, apart from disrupting the trial.

The IB picked up the third intercept about six months ago and had passed on the information to the Mumbai police.

The police beefed up security in the city and cracked down on six Lashkar modules which had been planning to carry out the operation.