Former members of Pakistan's military and the Inter-Services Intelligence agency trained the gunmen who attacked Mumbai in November, a senior member of the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba has told a US newspaper.
The New York Times said the militant revealed the Mumbai attackers were part of groups trained by officials at Lashkar camps in Pakistan. Other officials had "direct knowledge" that retired army and ISI officials trained Lashkar recruits.
“Some people of the ISI knew about the plan and closed their eyes,” one senior Lashkar operative in Karachi said, adding that he had met some of the gunmen before they left for the Mumbai assault. The operative, however, denied knowing about the gunmen's deadly mission.
Describing the nexus between the ISI and the militant group, the member told the newspaper “only a thin distance separated the Lashkar and the ISI, (which too was) bridged by former ISI and military officials.” The Lashkar militants spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to upset others in the group or the Pakistani authorities. A senior US intelligence official told the paper the ISI was believed to maintain its ties with Lashkar. However, an American law enforcement official said no credible evidence had emerged linking the Pakistani government to the Mumbai attacks.
Senior ISI officials disputed suggestions that their agency was still consorting with the Lashkar. “Prior to 9/11, we had a very strong contact with the LeT, even on the leadership level,” one senior Pakistani intelligence official said in an interview with the newspaper. “But after 9/11, we broke our contacts with not only the LeT but also the Taliban.” The official bemoaned the manner in which these ties had allegedly been severed. “Today we think that it would have been better if we had not cut our ties with them the way we did,” the official said, “so that we could control them more.”
A Pakistani investigation concludes “beyond any reasonable doubt” that it was Lashkar militants who carried out the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistani authorities have arrested seven men linked to that attack, including Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Lashkar's chief of operations. A senior Lashkar militant said the group was divided — with the operational wing, led by Lakhvi, chafing for more attacks on India, and the spiritual wing, led by LeT founder Hafeez Saeed, advocating a more cautious approach. A senior Pakistani intelligence official said some members of the Lashkar might have acted on their own. “Lashkar went rogue,” the Pakistani intelligence official said. “Perhaps LeT or dissident factions wanted to emerge as a global player,” like Al-Qaida.
Indian and Pakistani dossiers on the Mumbai investigations, copies of which were obtained by the newspaper, reveal details of four houses and two training camps in Karachi that were used to prepare the attacks. The dossiers are "laced with barbs and recriminations, reflecting the increasingly acid tenor of the relations" between Indian and Pakistani intelligence services, the newspaper said. “The only cooperation we have with the Pakistanis is that they send us their terrorists, who kill our people, and we kill their terrorists,” said a senior Indian intelligence official in an interview. A senior Pakistani intelligence official made a zero with his thumb and forefinger when asked how much his agency communicated with its Indian counterpart.
Despite pledges from Pakistan to dismantle militant groups operating on its soil, the LeT has persisted, even flourished, The Times noted. "Indeed, Lashkar’s broader network endures, and can be mobilised quickly for elaborate attacks with relatively few resources, according to a dozen current and former Lashkar militants and intelligence officials from the United States, Europe, India and Pakistan."
Pakistani officials expressed concern that another militant attack on Indian soil would precipitate a military response from India. “Right now we cannot guarantee that it will not happen again, because we do not have any control over it,” a senior intelligence official in Pakistan said.
US military, intelligence and counterterrorism officials expressed with "grim certainty" that the Lashkar was planning new attacks. US officials have warned India about another Mumbai-style attack against multiple sites, a senior Defence Department official and senior counterterrorism official said.
Israeli officials issued a similar warning in September. Israel's counterterrorism bureau at the National Security Council said in a warning to Israelis travelling to India: “The terrorist group that carried out the serious Mumbai attack in India is planning to carry out a number of attacks across India, particularly against concentrations of western or Israeli tourists.”
