Abu Jundal outside a court in Delhi in July 2012. (Associated Press)
26/11 handler and terrorist Abu Jundal could be kidnapped or assassinated while being brought from Mumbai to Delhi, the National Investigation Agency said today. The counter-terrorism agency said it would therefore like Abu Jundal to appear in a Delhi court via video-conference.
Abu Jundal was deported from Saudi Arabia to India three years ago and is in Mumbai's Arthur Road prison. He has been charged in multiple terror cases. A case by the Mumbai Police accuses him of a central role in the 26/11 attacks. In a Delhi court, the National Investigation Agency has accused him of waging war against India.
Investigators alleges that audio recordings establish that Abu Jundal was based in a control room in Pakistan during 26/11, passing instructions on the phone to the terrorists who had fanned out across Mumbai with grenades and machine guns, killing 166 people in 2008.
Sources in the Mumbai Police told NDTV today that as reported in the Indian Express, they would like to bring Jundal face-to-face via video-conferencing with David Coleman Headley, who is in prison in the US for helping plan 26/11.
The police says the joint session with Jundal and Headley could help prove that Pakistani state actors - senior officials in the army and intelligence agency ISI - were involved in 26/11. Headley and Jundal have reportedly listed the same army officers as involved with the attack.
Islamabad has repeatedly rejected accusations that army officers were involved with 26/11. It has put seven men on trial for the terror attack, including Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, a Lashkar commander. Earlier this year, Lakhvi was granted bail, creating new tension between Pakistan and India, which points out that the trial has made no progress in nearly seven years.