Four Mumbai terrorists 'had links with Britain' Kashmiri separatists prime suspects for attacks
By Andrew Buncombe in Mumbai and Kim Sengupta
Saturday, 29 November 2008
REUTERS
A policeman stands guard after shootings at a railway station in India's
financial capital
a.. More pictures
UK security agencies are sifting through information sent by Indian authorities
to establish whether British Muslims were involved in the terrorist attacks in
Mumbai that traumatised India.
The search to track down the "British connection" in the carnage began after a
number of Indian officials claimed that evidence had been found on dead and
captured gunmen linking them to the UK. Senior Whitehall sources confirmed that
police and the security and intelligence services were combing through
information sent by Indian authorities to ascertain whether any of the group
which carried out the assault were UK citizens or had visited or lived in this
country.
According to one report, four of the terrorists, two of them dead, had
connections with Britain. The Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told
Associated Press that two British-born Pakistanis were among the eight gunmen
arrested by Indian authorities.
However, British officials stressed they had not yet received "hard" evidence
that the men were British nationals. "There is a hell of a lot going on at the
minute and it is not just a matter of citizenship - that's a bit of a red
herring," said one source. "We are trying to establish whether any of these men
had been in this country and who they lived with, who they associated with, but
it is very early days."
At least 155 people are known to have died in the multi-pronged attacks. Last
night, the Indian government said the death toll could hit 200.
Britain's security agencies confirmed they were looking through intelligence on
domestic suspects with overseas extremist links and reviewing tracked telephone
calls to see if the "chatter" revealed British citizens were involved in the
Mumbai plot. Investigators are said to be concentrating on the Kashmiri
separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has previously recruited from the UK.
Rashid Rauf, who was wanted in connection with a terrorist plot to blow up
transatlantic airliners and was reported to have been killed recently in an
American missile strike, was associated with Lashkar.
Unconfirmed reports from India stated that some of the terrorists were from
Dewsbury and Bradford, areas from which some in the Muslim community had left
in the past to join jihadist groups abroad. Security officials stated that all
leads were be explored but stressed that no arrests had taken place in this
country yet in relation to the Mumbai attacks.
Gordon Brown said: "At no point has the Prime Minister of India [Manmohan
Singh] suggested ... there is evidence ... of any terrorist of British origins,
but obviously these are huge investigations ... and I think it will be
premature to draw any conclusions at all."
Security officials said it was looking increasingly likely that
Lashkar-e-Taiba, previously known as Jaish-e-Mohammed, was involved in the
attack with the militant group, Indian Mujaheddin. They played down suggestions
of a direct al-Qa'ida link.
As anti-terrorist officers from Scotland Yard flew out to Mumbai, security
officials urged against jumping to conclusions on documentation which may have
been found on the gunmen, pointing out that they may be forged. What was
crucial, said a senior source, was to establish their links in Britain and find
people they had been associating with.
Ed Husain, director of the Quilliam Foundation, a think-tank that campaigns
against extremism, said of the reports of British involvement in the attacks:
"British Muslim leaders need to take their heads out of the sand and begin
systematically dismantling the warped theology that has inspired these and
other attacks. Unless our government is bolder in identifying Islamism as the
root cause of extremism, we will only be responding to and not preventing
terrorism. Extremist Islamist groups continue to hold events in England and
recruit new followers. Radical Islamism has no place in our country."
There were still many unanswered questions last night about how many of the
gunmen had been in the cell and the degree of planning they undertook before
launching their operation. Indian officials said the gunmen had been arrested
and were being questioned by anti-terrorism officers. Meanwhile another report,
carried on the Indian NDTV news channel, suggested there may have been a total
of 40 militants, 29 of them from Pakistan and the remainder from Bangladesh.
What does seem clear is that the gunmen were well-armed and well-trained. It
might also be assumed that while they may have made extensive plans about the
attacks, there was no plan to escape. No demands were made of the authorities
and no attempt was made to use hostages to further their cause, except to cause
terror. It was, in effect, a suicide mission.
Yesterday, evidence about the training and planning of the gunmen came from the
commandos whose task was to confront the militants. At both the Taj Mahal and
Trident-Oberoi hotels, they said it had been a game of cat-and-mouse.
"These people were very, very familiar with the hotel layouts and it appears
they had carried out a survey before," said one commando, who declined to be
named. He said the gunmen used their knowledge to move skillfully from place to
place. "[They] showed no remorse to anybody; whoever came in front of them they
fired at," he added. "They appeared to be a determined lot, wanting to create
and spread terror."
The gunmen had come well-prepared. One backpack discovered by the commandos
contained 400 rounds of ammunition. It is understood that some of the gunmen
were carrying bags of almonds to eat during a long siege. They also had foreign
currency and credit cards. Not only were they well armed with assault rifles
and hand grenades, but they knew how to use them. The commando added: "It's
obvious they were trained somewhere ... not everyone can handle the AK series
of weapons or throw grenades like that."
Other questions will inevitably focus on how the gunmen were able to reach the
coastline undetected. Some experts have suggested a lack of co-ordination
between marine authorities.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
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