National

Terrorists were prepared for a long siege

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Police said on Thursday that the rucksacks of the terrorists killed and arrested during the attacks in Mumbai contained dry fruits, suggesting they were prepared for a long siege.

Investigators, however, discounted television reports that the terrorists had travelled on a ship identified as m.v. Alfa.

“Both the Coast Guard and the Indian Navy have searched dozens of ships off the Mumbai coast,” a senior Maharashtra police officer told The Hindu.

“But we as yet do not know which ship or ships were involved.”

Agence France Presse reported from Islamabad that a Srinagar-based Lashkar spokesperson, who uses the codename Abdullah Ghaznavi, had denied that the Lashkar was involved in the attack on Mumbai.

It was not clear, however, how AFP’s Islamabad office determined that Mr. Ghaznavi was calling from Srinagar, since there are no telephone links between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Srinagar-based journalists who sometimes receive phone calls from the Lashkar had not heard from Mr. Ghaznavi on the fighting from Mumbai until late Thursday.

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