Not very surprising, since Pakistan has been shielding the Taliban and al Qaeda, what’s one more jihad group under their wing, right?
Gunmen had elite training ‘from Pakistan’
India says the killers were among 500 schooled by special forces
THE 10 terrorist commandos who shot dead more than 160 people in Mumbai last month were among 500 trained to elite standards by Pakistan army and navy instructors, according to an Indian intelligence report seen by The Sunday Times.
Details were leaked as Indian officials accused Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) of directly supporting the attack. They claimed to have the names of the gunmen’s ISI trainers and handlers and to have intercepted internet phone calls between them.
Last week Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, flew to Pakistan to intensify pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Kayani, his army chief of staff, to appease Indian anger and stop tension between Delhi and Islamabad from escalating into war.
Mullen is understood to have told his Pakistani counterpart that America had proof that the attacks were launched from its soil by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, which has close links to the ISI.
America and Britain are keen the friction should not distract Pakistan’s forces from their offensive against Al-Qaeda and Taliban “safe havens” in tribal areas close to the Afghan border.
However, sources close to Indian intelligence claimed that another attack before next year’s general election would make war inevitable. Police in Calcutta were yesterday holding two men accused of illegally providing Sim cards for mobile phones used by the attackers. One was claimed to be a counter-insurgency police officer who may have been on a clandestine mission.
The Indian intelligence report claims the Mumbai gunmen were among a large group of volunteer “fedayeen” trained in commando tactics by Pakistan army and navy instructors over 18 months from December 2006.
“The training of these 500 men was in three phases. The first was basic physical fitness and firearms training. The second was marine navigation and swimming. The third involved training to sabotage underwater installations such as oil rigs, ships and submarines,” said one official.
“They were trained to a level of US Seals or Pakistani marine commandos. They were elite. Ten of these men were the ones who attacked Mumbai.”
Read the entire story.
Related posts:
- Mumbai jihadist claims religious leaders in Kashmir inspired attacks, training in Pakistan
- SHOCKER: UK mosques linked to Mumbai jihadists
- India besieged by muslim jihadists, both foreign and domestic
- India: Rabbi among dead hostages discovered at Jewish centre in Mumbai
- Mumbai mastermind arrested in Pakistan
- Pakistan refuses to hand over wanted Jihadists to India
- In e-mail, Islamic group claims India blasts
- Indian Navy Destroys Pirate ‘Mother Ship’ in Battle
- Mumbai jihadi claims female FBI officer sexually harrassed him
- Day 4 in Mumbai: It’s finally over
