Intelligence sources said that Abu Jundal, in his interrogation disclosed that following the Mumbai massacre the LeT shifted its headquarters from Muridke to Dolai region in PoK to avoid suspicion. He also told interrogators that once Zaki-ur-Reham Lakhvi was arrested for involvement in the Mumbai attack, Muzamil Bhatt was made the operational head of the Lashkar.
Jundal, sources added, has given important details to investigating agencies regarding nexus between LeT and Indian Mujahideen. He along with Mohd Adil, a Pakistani national arrested by Delhi police’s special cell last year, were the main co-ordinators between LeT and IM.
Hitting out at Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik for saying that Jundal is an ‘’Indian’’ involved in 26/11, “I agree with Rehman Malik that Abu Jundal is an Indian perhaps he was radicalised in India. I admit that. Equally, Pakistan should admit that Abu Jundal did go to Pakistan and he was part of the group which trained and prepared Kasab and nine others and he was in the control room and one of the masterminds and handlers of the attack. Just as we admit the facts Pakistan too should admit the facts,” he said.
Home secretary R.K. Singh said Pakistan should also admit that they have given a passport and two identity cards to Abu Jundal and that ‘’they should also admit the fact that they claimed that he was a Pakistani.’’
On Mr Malik’s charge that the Indian investigations had first gone wrong on certain cases like the Samjhauta Express blast, where the role of Hindu extremists emerged later, Mr Chidambaram said, “There is no flip flop. I explained this to Mr Malik who infact thanked me. He did not say the investigation was shoddy. These cases were probed by the state police and later when the NIA took over, it put the investigations on the right track. We have identified the right wing groups who were behind it and have a lot of evidence against them. It is better to admit your mistake,” he said.
Mr Chidambaram denied any slip-up by Indian agencies which allowed Jundal to escape from India to Pakistan via Bangladesh after the Aurangabad arms haul case in 2006. “Crossing over to Bangladesh isn’t a very difficult task. It is an open and porous with Bangladesh,” Mr Chidam-baram said.
The home secretary added that while others were arrested, only Jundal had managed to escape. “It is a success and not a failure that the agencies were able to arrest the others,” he said. Mr Chidambaram also denied any rift between the agencies on Jundal’s custody.
“I have told the chief minister of Maharashtra in due course with the permission of court he will be made available to the ATS Mumbai and to the Maharashtra Police in the Mumbai and Aurangabad cases.” In due course he will also be made available to Gujarat Police in the Ahmedabad railway station blast case, he said.
Mr Chidambaram said there may be another LeT operative by the name of Abu Hamza and Syed Zabiuddin was only using the pseudonym Abu Jundal. He said India no longer requires Pakistan’s help to identify the voice sample of Jundal but there are others whose voice samples have been sought from Pakistan. He said only when India feels certain evidence can be used to put pressure on Pakistan to act against 26/11 perpetrators, then that evidence will be shared with that country.
Mr Chidambaram said the terror threat from Pakistan remains as high and ‘’we are alive to the fact that India continues to remain the target of the LeT and other organisations . While we remain vigilant, he said, measures aimed towards normalisation of bilateral ties through increase in trade and others are being taken.
He also said Pakistan has so far not responded to India’s request to send a judicial commission to that country to question certain persons and gather evidence to aid the 26/11 investigations.