Indian intelligence and security agencies are realising how important a catch top Lashkar-e-Tayabba operative Abu Jundal is turning out to be. After Jundal’s disclosure led to the busting of a key Indian Mujahideen module involved in the Pune serial bombings, he has now revealed at least 12 such IM and Lashkar modules have been trained to target major Indian cities.
With one such module neutralised, intelligence agencies have begun a massive hunt for the others. Jundal, now in the custody of the National Investigation Agency, has revealed these modules have already sneaked into India, having been trained in Pakistan under the direct supervision of IM founders Riaz and Iqbal Bhatkal and top Lashkar commander Fayaz Kagzi.
“This is a painstaking investigation as Jundal is giving a broad picture of Lashkar and IM plans for India. But tracing these modules is not easy as we saw in the Pune bombing case. But we have some leads on other modules, and a massive hunt is on,” a senior intelligence official told this newspaper.
Sources said Jundal had, however, denied knowledge of specific targets in India, saying these were decided by the IM and Lashkar top brass. But the official admitted important Indian cities and major tourism and business centres were on the terrorists’ radar as these would cause greater embarrassment to India internationally.
Central intelligence agencies are in constant touch with all state police special branches. “In any case this is a crucial time for the country as the festive season has begun, and will continue till the new year,” the official said. “Further, there are important Assembly elections coming up in two states, so security has to be at an all-time high. Jundal’s disclosures are being taken with a lot of seriousness.”
The Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday, meanwhile, filed an additional chargesheet in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, naming Jundal as one of the key conspirators. The detailed chargesheet, that runs into 14,676 pages and has the names of 1,783 witnesses, said Jundal had taught the 26/11 terrorists Hindi.