Mumbai:
Mumbai police investigators say they may have succeeded in putting a face to an until now unidentified Indian Lashkar-e-Toiba operative who played a key role in guiding the operations of the team that attacked Mumbai in November 2008.
Based on information provided by India's intelligence services, as well as interviews with arrested jihadists, police believe the Indian national in the Lashkar's control room could be Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin Ansari, a Lashkar-linked Maharashtra resident, who has been a fugitive since 2005.
The unidentified Indian operative was one of several Lashkar personnel who used Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) links to provide orders to the assault team.
Last month, English newspaper
The Hindu broke the news that one of the operatives in the control station spoke Mumbai-inflected Hindi, in stark contrast to the Punjabi used by the others.