Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor on Tuesday gave some perspective about the investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks, stating that the terrorists involved were Pakistanis and that there was ample evidence to prove this.
Addressing a press conference at his office in Mumbai, Gafoor said terrorists came from Karachi and the interrogation of an arrested terrorist gave proof of the same. On whether the ISI was behind this attack, the commissioner said there was no proof as yet to show the same.
The commissioner also clarified that they had no intelligence warning on the attack. He stuck to the stand that only 10 persons had carried out the attack on that fateful night and added that it was entirely an operation launched from outside.
He said the investigating agency had not found proof of any local module that was involved in attack. He, however, said that they were probing into this angle and several persons were being questioned about the same.
On the role played by Dawood Ibrahim, he said investigation into this aspect was still on.
We have not got any link on his involvement on whether he provided logistic support or funded the operation. However, that is an important line of the investigations, he added.
Besides this we are also probing the Deccan Mujahideen angle, he said.
How the attack was carried out?
The commissioner explained that 10 terrorists had come into Mumbai from Karachi. They hired five taxis and entered the city. They then split up into groups of two and went about their mission, he said.
The officer said the terrorists were familiar with the targets as they had been shown detailed maps of locations in the metropolis.
The commissioner further added that all terrorists were equipped with bombs. Two bombs were planted in taxis while the remaining three were defused near the Taj, Leopold and Trident.
He said an attack on the Cama hospital was not a planned one and added that terrorists fired at the hospital while on the run.
The commissioner further added that arms for the operation were carried by the 10 terrorists and that they had no information on additional arms that were kept on stand by. He said the attackers used satellite phones to communicate during the operation.
Further, the commissioner said that terrorists' target was foreigners and that although Leopold did not figure in their plan, they fired at it as there were many foreigners there.
The attack seemed to be a very Mariott Hotel-styled attack, he said, adding that these men had trained for a year before they could carry out this operation.
The commissioner also said that it looked like a suicide attack but also added that there was no evidence as yet to show the involvement of Al-Qaeda behind the attack. He also clarified that no women were involved in this attack.
Gafoor said investigations into the involvement of local modules will continue. We have only questioned some people in connection with this attack. He added that no detentions had been made so far.
He said there are various other clues that they need to get and added all that would become clear in the due course of time.
On a question whether they were able to furnish proof to Pakistan regarding this incident, Gafoor said that once the probe was complete, they would definitely give Pakistan proof.
On the ongoing probe, the commissioner said that the arrested terrorist was cooperating and they had been able to elicit a lot of information from him.
The other points that the commissioner chose to clarify was that there was no proof that the attackers were using drugs. He also said that the men who carried out the attack had Rs 5,000 each in their pocket. The foreign currency that was seized was picked up by the terrorists from dead foreign nationals in the hotels, he said.
