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U.S. exposes LeT hand in attacks

New York/Islamabad: The United States has exposed the involvement of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Mumbai carnage following a “confession” by its top commander Zarar Shah and handing over of taped conversations of the group’s operation head Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi to Pakistan, media reports said on Wednesday.

The Americans are believed to have given Pakistan a taped conversation Lakhvi allegedly had with the gunmen involved in the Mumbai attacks on November 26, Pakistan’s Dawn quoted U.S. and diplomatic sources as saying.

Taking a tough stand following Islamabad’s persistent denials on the involvement of its nationals in the terror strikes, the U.S. has asked Islamabad to extradite Lakhvi to India.

Both Shah and Lakhvi were among the LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) activists captured during a crackdown by Pakistani security forces near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), on December 7 after intense international pressure.

Pakistani security officials were quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that Shah has confessed during interrogation to the LeT’s role in the Mumbai attacks.

A news channel quoted PMO sources in Pakistan admitting to the involvement of the LeT in the Mumbai attacks. But PMO spokesman Imran Gardezi was quick to rubbish it.

“These reports are totally incorrect. The PMO has not issued any statement about the alleged involvement of the LeT in the Mumbai attacks,” he told PTI.

Shah has also implicated other LeT members, and had broadly confirmed the confession made by the sole captured militant Ajmal Kasab to Indian investigators — that the 10 assailants were trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai, the Journal report said.

It also quoted a person familiar with the investigation as saying that Shah also admitted that the attackers spent at lease a few weeks in Karachi, training in urban combat to hone the skills they would use in their attacks.

Shah is believed to have told Pakistani interrogators that he was one of the “key planners” of the operation, and that he spoke with the attackers during the carnage to give them advice and keep them focussed.

American audio experts had checked the taped conversations and concluded it was genuine and that the speaker was Lakhvi, the Dawn said.

Lakhvi’s detention was confirmed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani but the LeT operative’s current whereabouts are not known.

Pakistan has stuck to the line that it will not hand over to India any of its nationals found to be linked to the Mumbai attacks. It has said such individuals will be tried under Pakistani laws.

British daily The Times also reported that Shah admitted his complicity. — PTI

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