New Delhi\Islamabad:
As the interrogation of Abu Hamza alias Abu Jundal, whose real name is Zabiuddin Ansari, continues and new details emerge by the hour to reveal a long, complex terror trail, India has said the suspected Lashkar man's confession confirms the involvement of Pakistani "state actors" in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Pakistan has emphatically denied that. It has also said there is confusion about the identity of the man India has arrested.
Here are the top 10 developments in this fast-moving story:
Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that according to information coming out of Jundal's initial interrogation, there are clear indicators that there was some Pakistani state support for the 26/11 attacks. The Home Minister said a one-year-long hunt for Jundal led to his arrest. He said Jundal has been conclusively identified as one of the voices on the 26/11 tapes and that he is suspected of being involved in many other terror attacks, like the 2006 Mumbai train blasts.
Mr Chidambaram said while the world would appreciate the way India was tracking every one of the 26/11 masterminds and accomplices, Pakistan showed up very poorly in the fight against terror. Mr Chidambaram also said that it appeared that wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was in Pakistan as well.
Pakistan has strongly refuted Mr Chidambaram's charge. Advisor in the Interior Ministry Rehman Malik said no state actors were involved in terror activities. Mr Malik defended Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) saying it has only worked for the good of Pakistan and had no role to play in terror. Jundal, who has allegedly given interrogators details about his role as a Lashkar-e-Taiba handler during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, has allegedly said that officers from the ISI were present in the Karachi control room that he operated from during the Mumbai terror attacks. Mr Chidambaram confirmed this.
Mr Malik insisted that there was confusion regarding the identity of Abu Hamza. That, he said, was also the name of a man Pakistan had arrested post 26/11. "There is some confusion in India...there was another most-wanted man Siddiqui, he is also Abu Hamza. This is not the same Abu Hamza. We have sought more information," Mr Malik said. He said Zabiuddin Ansari was Indian and was caught in India, adding that India had failed to control its citizens.
Mr Malik has sought more information on the man India has arrested. Mr Chidambaram said Mr Malik had sent him a note after the arrest seeking that India share information. That would be done, he said, but also said he hoped that Pakistan would reciprocate with voice samples of 26/11 suspects that India had sought.
The special cell of the Delhi police has today opposed in court a move by the Mumbai crime branch to get Abu Jundal's custody, saying its investigations are still on. Also the Mumbai team has reportedly mentioned the wrong name while seeking custody - it sought the custody of Abu Hamza. Jundal is being interrogated right now by the Delhi Police, which has custody till July 6. Home Ministry sources say his custody will next be given to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Abu Hamza was allegedly sent to Saudi Arabia by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to scout for new recruits. About eight or nine months ago, he made a phone call from there to Pakistan, which was intercepted by the US. Around the same time India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing picked up his movements and began to track Jundal. It was reportedly on pressure from the US that the Saudi authorities arrested Abu Jundal last year in connection with a forgery case. The moment that happened, sources say, Islamabad allegedly muscled in and demanded that he be deported immediately to Pakistan. The US, sources say, stepped in and prevented Jundal's deportation to Pakistan.
Jundal or Hamza has allegedly confessed that the attack unleashed upon Mumbai in 2008 was originally planned to be executed two years before that. However, the attacks could not take place in 2006 after a huge cache of arms and ammunition to be used in the attacks was discovered in Aurangabad. It was then that his name first emerged as a potential terror suspect. Hamza then escaped to Bangladesh, reportedly without any papers, and later went to Pakistan. (Read: 26/11 was planned originally for 2006)
Hamza, 31, is from the Beed district in Maharashtra, and studied at the Indian Technical Institute. He worked for a while as an insurance agent. Then the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 turned him into a jihadi. He was originally a member of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), an Indian terror group, and was close to its founder, Riyaz Bhatkal. He was recruited by the terror group Students Islamic Movement of India or SIMI. A few years later, he was in Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir when he entered the ranks of the LeT.
Hamza, currently in a Delhi jail, is in the custody of the Delhi Police. He will stay there till July 6. Apart from the Mumbai Police, which wants to question him about the 2006 attacks on local trains in Mumbai, in which 180 people were killed, the Bangalore Police wants to interrogate him about his alleged role in a bomb blast outside Chinnaswamy Stadium during a cricket match in 2010. The National Investigation Agency which is handling the 26/11 case, also wants to interrogate him.
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