New Delhi:
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Syed Zabiuddin alias Abu Jundal's passport shows him as a Pakistani national. NDTV has accessed Jundal's passport and the identity cards that he was using in Saudi Arabia during his 18-month stay there.
The passport, which has his name as Riyasat Ali and shows his permanent address as Muridke in Shekhupura in Pakistan, was issued in January 2009 and is valid till 2014. A copy of one of the identity cards that he used in Saudi Arabia also shows him as a Pakistani national.
Jundal allegedly used the passport to enter Saudi Arabia in 2010 to recruit young immigrant Indians for future operations of Lashkar in India.
Although the authenticity of the passport is still being scrutinised, authorities say it is yet another indication that Jundal had state support from Pakistan during his stay in the country and Saudi Arabia.
Jundal was deported from Saudi Arabia to India last month. Originally from Beed in Maharashtra, the 31-year-old has confessed that he helped coordinate the attacks in Mumbai in 2008 in which 166 people were killed. Jundal was stationed at what he describes as a "control room" near the Karachi international airport. He has told Indian intelligence agencies that from here, a team of six handlers including him passed on detailed instructions to the ten terrorists who were unleashing India's worst-ever terror attacks at different Mumbai landmarks. Jundal has said that officers from Pakistani military agency ISI supervised the control room.
He has also reportedly told interrogators that after the 26/11 attacks, LeT had shortlisted the Nashik Police Academy in Maharashtra as a terror target.
(Read)Details shared by him have led to India reiterating that the 26/11 attacks would not have been possible without state support- Pakistan has emphatically denied those allegations and has asked India to share details about Jundal and his interrogation.