The terrorists involved in the Mumbai multiple attacks are believed to be members of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, based in Pakistan.
Sharing this assessment, national security advisor MK Narayanan and union home minister Shivraj Patil told the high powered cabinet committee on political affairs (CCPA) on Thursday that the terrorists, who stormed two five star hotels as well as other targets in Mumbai last night and killed several persons, were members of a Lashkar module and, in all likelihood, originated in Pakistan.
A preliminary picture drawn by government about the modus operandi of the Lashkar module suggests that they reached Mumbai through the sea route. Authoritative sources said initial leads suggested that the terrorists probably landed first at an old fishing colony near the old Taj in south Mumbai. They also asserted that, in all likelihood, some kind of recce was done earlier by the terrorists, as they seem to have made their way, after landing on the coast, to an old building near the fishing colony that houses a Jewish guesthouse.
The sources said that some floors of the building have remained unoccupied, a fact that was probably known to the terrorists. They are believed to have regrouped at the guesthouse, from where they then made their way to different locations in the city.
Defence minister AK Antony asserted at the CCPA meeting that the possibility of a mother ship having dropped the Lashkar module close to Mumbai harbour was also being probed by the navy and coast guard. The sources, however, said that it would not be a surprise if they had come on their own in small boats. ?It takes a few hours by boat from Karachi to Mumbai. In a number of instances, our fishermen as well as theirs have been apprehended earlier on each other?s coastline, so it should not be surprising,? the senior minister said.
While asserting that initial leads were pointing to an external hand, the sources in the government, however, indicated that this did not imply complicity of the Pakistani establishment yet. Pakistan itself has been under attack by Lashkar elements, a senior minister reminded, pointing to the bomb attack on the Marriot hotel in Islamabad in September in which several foreigners were killed.
The Lashkar-e-Toiba was formed in 1990 with its base near Lahore and recorded its first presence in J&K. It was included in the terrorist list by the US government and banned by the Musharraf regime in 2002, following which the outfit changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The LeT has networked with Islamist extremist organisations in J&K, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka as well as Maharashtra and was credited with the attacks at the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore in 2005 as well as engineering the serial blasts in New Delhi. National security advisor MK Narayanan had said earlier that the Lashkar is part of the Al Qaeda compact.