Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The National Investigative Agency (NIA) failed to secure the custody of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative Abu Jundal, his custody will remain with Delhi Police for 15 days, a city court ruled on Thursday.
The Delhi Police was against handing over Jundal to NIA or other similar agencies at this juncture as they felt his custody was needed to unravel the larger conspiracy of Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Besides the NIA, the Mumbai crime branch and Maharashtra ATS had sought his custody.
However, the Tis Hazari court decided to grant Jundal’s custody to Delhi Police for 15 more days.
Delhi Police sleuths had brought him to the court in a white Scorpio SUV. Dressed in white pathani suit, Jundal steeped out of the car wearing a black mask and walked into the court room.
The police had thrown a security cordon around their prize catch even as media persons and onlookers tried to get a glimpse of the high-profile terror suspect, who was deported to India from Saudi Arabia.
Abu Jundal, the alleged 26/11 handler was arrested on June 21 after being deported by Saudi Arabian officials.
Abu Jundal’s revelations
Jundal was one of the Pakistani handlers who was giving instructions to the 26/11 terrorists. He reportedly identified targets for the 26/11 attacks.
Intelligence source indicate that that he was recruited by a Kashmir-based Lashkar operative in 2005. He allegedly got involved in planning for the 26/11 Mumbai terror operation at the beginning of 2008.
Sources say Jundal, as the Indian in the group, was the one who trained the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on what to wear, what to say etc. He who belongs to Beed in Maharashtra, speaks Marathi, Urdu, Hindi and also a bit of Arabic.
During interrogations, he reportedly confessed his role in the country`s worst terror attack and admitted that he was present in the LeT control room in Karachi and was giving direction to the 10 terrorists who carried out the strike.
The 26/11 handler gave a deep insight into the situation at `Karachi control room` monitoring the Mumbai attack, sources said.
Jundal reportedly told the investigative agencies that officials of ace Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) ran the control room along with senior Lashkar commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. Jundal had reportedly worked in close tandem with Lakhvi.
During the interrogations, the LeT handler reportedly admitted that ISI destroyed 26/11 control room in Karachi after the arrest of Lakhvi from Pak Occupied Kashmir.
Jundal is the highest ranked Indian in terror outfit LeT and his questioning is proving to be a key link in establishing the involvement of Pakistan state actors in the Mumbai terror attacks.
