New Delhi: Islamabad on Wednesday confirmed that Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba was involved in the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26.
The Pakistan Prime Minister's office exclusively confirmed to CNN-IBN that the government has detained a top commander of the LeT, Zarar Shah, who has reportedly confessed to his role in the terror attacks.
Zarar Shah reportedly gave advice, directions to terrorists and talked to his men to keep them "focussed" during the terror strikes.
Shah, who is regarded as the technology head of Lashkar, is the same man who reportedly has been eyeing INS Viraat as the next target. While he is supposedly been detained, his whereabouts are unknown.
Meanwhile, Washington has told Pakistan to hand over Lashkar commander Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi to India. Lakvhi is the chief suspect in the Mumbai blasts.
The US has reportedly confirmed that it is Lakhvi who masterminded the blasts and belongs to the same area as Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was captured on the night of November 26.
Lakhvi had been arrested from a Lashkar camp near Muzaffarabad early this month. His detention was confirmed by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. But Pakistan now says it does not know where he is.
Confessions of a dangerous mind
According to a Wall Street Journal report Shah implicated other LeT members, and had broadly confirmed the confession made by the sole captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab to Indian investigators – that the 10 assailants trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and then went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.
The paper said Pakistan's own investigation of terror attacks in Mumbai have begun to show substantive links between the LeT and 10 gunmen who took part in the Mumbai mission.
Pakistani security officials were also quoted as saying that a top Lashkar commander, Zarar Shah, has admitted a role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation.
The paper quoted a person familiar with investigation as saying that Shah also admitted that the attackers spent at least a few weeks in Karachi, training in urban combat to hone skills they would use in their assault.
The disclosure, it said, could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks, which left 183 dead in India, originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects.
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