Rhys Blakely, Mumbai | December 05, 2008
THE sole Mumbai gunman to be taken alive has told police he was paid 150,000 Pakistani rupees ($2970) for his part in the attacks that killed nearly 200 people.
Rakesh Maria, the joint commissioner of Mumbai police, who is one of the interrogators questioning baby-faced gunman Ajmal Amir Kamal said police were also investigating a possible link to the US, a mobile SIM card found with the terrorists that possibly came from New Jersey.
"Nothing is confirmed, but we are looking at this and have made enquiries with mobile operators," Mr Maria said.
Indian interrogators are preparing to administer a truth serum on Kamal, the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks on Mumbai, to settle the question of where he is from.
The controversial technique, banned in most democracies, was widely used by Western intelligence agencies during the Cold War, before it emerged that the drugs used, typically the barbiturate sodium pentothal, may induce hallucinations, delusions and psychotic manifestations.
The identity of Kamal was at the centre of a row between India and Pakistan yesterday.
Police said Kamal had identified himself as a 24-year-old Pakistani from the village of Faridkot in the southern part of the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Meanwhile, Indian officials remain under pressure to account for the lax handling of last week's crisis.
The deployment of India's elite troops to the two luxury hotels that were stormed by terrorist gunmen may have been delayed for hours by red tape that calls for a written request to be made to the Indian navy before they are dispatched.
An Indian defence spokesman based in Mumbai said standing orders demanded that a letter be sent to the Indian navy before its marine commandos - or "Marcos" - are ordered from their barracks.
The spokesman said that the paperwork was eventually sidestepped on the day of the attacks, but not until it became apparent to millions of television viewers across the world that India's commercial capital was under a massive, co-ordinated terror attack.
Despite the Marcos - regarded as the "best of the best" of India's military - being based in Mumbai, they did not reach the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels until 1.30am, about four hours after the terrorist gunmen had stormed the buildings.
By that stage the militants had consolidated their positions and trapped hundreds of staff and guests.
According to a deputy police commissioner in Mumbai and one of Kamal's interrogators, the 10 gunmen had been chosen from a group of 24 that had gone through the same extensive training, overseen by an ex-army officer.
They were prepared by being shown violent footage from Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
According to Indian police, evidence of a Pakistan link also includes grenades found on the gunmen, which were manufactured in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls from a handset used by the militants.
Indian investigators said 8kg of explosives had been found in a bag in Mumbai's main railway station, where Kamal and an accomplice killed 56 people a week ago.
THE sole Mumbai gunman to be taken alive has told police he was paid 150,000 Pakistani rupees ($2970) for his part in the attacks that killed nearly 200 people.
Rakesh Maria, the joint commissioner of Mumbai police, who is one of the interrogators questioning baby-faced gunman Ajmal Amir Kamal said police were also investigating a possible link to the US, a mobile SIM card found with the terrorists that possibly came from New Jersey.
"Nothing is confirmed, but we are looking at this and have made enquiries with mobile operators," Mr Maria said.
Indian interrogators are preparing to administer a truth serum on Kamal, the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks on Mumbai, to settle the question of where he is from.
The controversial technique, banned in most democracies, was widely used by Western intelligence agencies during the Cold War, before it emerged that the drugs used, typically the barbiturate sodium pentothal, may induce hallucinations, delusions and psychotic manifestations.
The identity of Kamal was at the centre of a row between India and Pakistan yesterday.
Police said Kamal had identified himself as a 24-year-old Pakistani from the village of Faridkot in the southern part of the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Meanwhile, Indian officials remain under pressure to account for the lax handling of last week's crisis.
The deployment of India's elite troops to the two luxury hotels that were stormed by terrorist gunmen may have been delayed for hours by red tape that calls for a written request to be made to the Indian navy before they are dispatched.
An Indian defence spokesman based in Mumbai said standing orders demanded that a letter be sent to the Indian navy before its marine commandos - or "Marcos" - are ordered from their barracks.
The spokesman said that the paperwork was eventually sidestepped on the day of the attacks, but not until it became apparent to millions of television viewers across the world that India's commercial capital was under a massive, co-ordinated terror attack.
Despite the Marcos - regarded as the "best of the best" of India's military - being based in Mumbai, they did not reach the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels until 1.30am, about four hours after the terrorist gunmen had stormed the buildings.
By that stage the militants had consolidated their positions and trapped hundreds of staff and guests.
According to a deputy police commissioner in Mumbai and one of Kamal's interrogators, the 10 gunmen had been chosen from a group of 24 that had gone through the same extensive training, overseen by an ex-army officer.
They were prepared by being shown violent footage from Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
According to Indian police, evidence of a Pakistan link also includes grenades found on the gunmen, which were manufactured in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls from a handset used by the militants.
Indian investigators said 8kg of explosives had been found in a bag in Mumbai's main railway station, where Kamal and an accomplice killed 56 people a week ago.
Source: The Australian
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