Terrorist group leaders linked to Mumbai attack

MUMBAI, India—India suspects that two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group orchestrated the three-day siege of the country's financial capital that killed at least 171 people, Indian officials said Dec. 4.

Evidence collected in the investigation points to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil as the masterminds behind the bloody rampage in Mumbai, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.

Lakhvi and Muzammil, who are believed to be living in Pakistan, are top members of the outlawed Pakistani group “Lashkar-e-Taiba” which India blames for the attacks, the officials said. Lakhvi has been identified as the group's chief of operations and Muzammil as its operations chief in Kashmir and other parts of India.

The revelations came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Pakistan, on Dec. 4, for meetings with civilian and military leaders after visiting Indian leaders in New Delhi.

Indian airports, meanwhile, were put on high alert after the government received warnings of possible airborne attacks. "This is based on a warning, which has been received. We are prepared as usual," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, said Dec. 4.

The Mumbai attacks were carried out by 10 suspected Muslim militants against hotels, a restaurant, and a Jewish centre.

On Dec. 3 a stunning new discovery sparked public outrage when police found two bombs at Mumbai's main railway station nearly a week after the attacks.

While searching through about 150 bags, which police believed were left by the dozens of victims in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, an officer found a suspicious-looking bag and called the bomb squad, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Bapu Domre. Inside were two 4-kilogram bombs which were removed and safely detonated, he said.

It was not immediately clear why the bags at the station were not examined earlier. The station, which serves hundreds of thousands of commuters, was declared safe and reopened hours after the attack.

Much of the evidence that Pakistanis were behind the Mumbai attack comes from the interrogation of the surviving gunman, who told police that he and the other nine attackers had trained for months in camps in Pakistan operated by the banned militant group “Lashkar-e-Taiba.”

Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told investigators his recruiters promised to pay $1,250 [USD] to his family, who live in an impoverished village in Pakistan's Punjab region, when he became a martyr.

Kasab said he and the other gunmen were "hand-picked" for the mission and were trained for more than a year by “Lashkar-e-Taiba,” based in Kashmir, according to two senior Indian officials involved in the investigation.