NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Abu Jundal has confirmed that he and other 26/11 masterminds had plotted to make the attack appear as a handiwork of Hindu radicals upset with the slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

Sources familiar with Jundal’s interrogation quoted him saying that it was the Maharashtra-born terrorist who thought of giving it a Hindu hue. Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 terror attack, had arrested alleged Hindu terrorists — including Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit — for the 2008 Malegaon blasts.

As part of the deception, gunman Ajmal Kasab and the other terrorists were made to wear saffron wristbands (maulis). Also, IDs bearing Hindu names like Sameer Chaudhary, were organized. The terrorists were taught the basics of Hindi usage

by Jundal.

The plan would have succeeded had all the terrorists been killed. But Ajmal Kasab’s capture was a spanner in the works, although it did not deter many from publicly expressing the suspicion that 26/11 may have been meant to avenge Karkare’s action against Hindu radicals.

Jundal told interrogators that he had drafted the email in Hindi that was sent to media houses attributing the authorship of the attack to a fictional group, Deccan Mujahidin. An MA in Hindi literature, Jundal was best suited for the job.

Jundal, who is reportedly the highest ranking Indian in the LeT hierarchy, has also disclosed various locations of Lashkar hideouts and that of the control room in Karachi, from where he along with five others gave directions to the 10 militants in Mumbai. Jundal has claimed that this control room was setup in a rented accommodation in Quaidabad locality, close to Malir Cantonment area and Jinnah International airport in Karachi.

Sources also confirmed that safety of control room was the responsibility of Major Sajid Meer of Pakistan’s army, who was present there along with Lakhvi, Jundal, Zarar Shah, Muzammil and Azam Cheema. Officials say that the locality houses several Pakistani army officers and some VIPs. “For travelling from control room to the Lashkar headquarters in Karachi, they used their own vehicles,” said the source.

Jundal has also provided names of some officers of ISI and the Pakistani Army apart from various LeT leaders and their hideouts, which investigators say, prove that state actors were part of the 26/11 conspiracy.

