M A I N   N E W S

26/11: Pak navy trained Kasab
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19
What Ajmal Kasab confessed about the role of the Pakistan navy in training him and the nine others who attacked Mumbai in November 2008 has been corroborated by David Coleman Headley during his interrogation carried out by Indian investigators.

Headley is in the FBI custody and lodged in a Chicago Jail and was questioned by the Indian investigators.

During his interrogation, Kasab confessed that the terrorists, who attacked Mumbai, received training of swimming and underwater diving from the Pakistan navy's frogmen. A frogman is someone who is trained to dive and swim under water.

"The role of the Pakistan navy was confirmed by Headley when the Indian investigators interrogated him in the US last month," an official said today.

This is being seen as another clear indicator of the Pakistani establishment's involvement in the planning and execution of the Mumbai terror attack, which claimed 168 lives.

Home Secretary GK Pillai had recently said the ISI was controlling and coordinating the attacks. Rather his remarks had created a furore.

Officials said the Indian investigators so far had no plan to interrogate Headley's accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani origin Canadian citizen, as his involvement in the Mumbai attack conspiracy was limited to providing finance.

Headley has also told his interrogators that the Pakistani intelligence agency had paid Rs 25 lakh to LeT to purchase a boat which terrorists used to travel from Karachi to the Pakistani maritime boundary, where they hijacked an Indian fishing boat 'Kuber' to reach Mumbai.