"The former army major, with the help of Ilyas Kashmiri's men in India, hijacked the ISI plan and turned it into the devastating attacks that shook Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and brought Pakistan and India to the brink of a war," Mr Shahzad added. Their gambit almost worked. British and American intelligence officials feared the attack would provoke Indian military retaliation in the immediate aftermath, and believed it had been conceived to that end.