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Mumbai terror cash trail leads to Karachi

MUMBAI: Investigators have determined that payments for a voice-over-Internet protocol service used by the terrorists who stormed this city last month were made from Karachi, Mumbai police sources told The Hindu.

The investigators have found that a still-unidentified individual using false identification papers routed $ 290 to the VOIP service Vox Phone through a Karachi office of the money-transfer giant, Western Union.

Police in Mumbai intercepted calls made by the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, who attacked Mumbai, to two VOIP numbers from six Indian mobile phone numbers.

During the calls, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi — the top Lashkar commander reported to have been held in Pakistan in raids carried out by authorities there on Monday — gave instructions to the terrorists as their operations at the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus unfolded. No calls were, however, intercepted in the Oberoi and Trident Hotels complex.

The investigators suspect that the individual who arranged for SIM cards, VOIP connections and satellite phones used by the terrorists was Zarar Shah, who, India’s intelligence services say, is the Lashkar communications chief. It is unclear if the name Zarar Shah is real or, as is the case with most Lashkar commanders, an operational alias.

Shah — if that is indeed his name — is also believed to have despatched an e-mail, claiming responsibility for the attack under the false flag of an organisation called the Deccan Mujahideen. The e-mail, which said the attack was intended to avenge atrocities on Muslims in India, is believed to have been generated on a Hindi language voice-recognition software. The investigators say it was sent to Indian newsrooms from a Lahore-based server.

Vox Phone, a popular VOIP service, allows users to create virtual phone numbers bearing the international dialling codes of several countries from which calls can be made and received. No physical verification of the individuals opening accounts takes place, the police sources said, a fact which facilitated the terror operation. The terrorists set up phone numbers which bore the calling codes of New Jersey in the U.S. and Vienna, Western Union’s services, which are widely used across the South Asian region to facilitate foreign currency transfers, have been misused in the past by terrorists operating against India. For example, Pakistani al-Badr operatives Mohammad Fahd and Mohammad Ali Husain, who attempted to set up a Mysore-based cell in 2006, received funds through Western Union.

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