Pak charge-sheet let off Hafiz Saeed

New Delhi: The charge-sheet filed by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has glossed over the alleged role of Hafiz Saeed, despite considerable evidence gathered by Indian and Western security agencies over his role in the Mumbai blasts.  

It names Lakhvi, the operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, as the “mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attack” notwithstanding the fact that five years ago Islamabad clearly signalled its intention to not go after Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the man who is the real masterminded the terrorist outrage.

The FIA chargesheet names the attackers, details their training and acquisition of supplies and firearms, and goes on to describe the attack in detail, even naming dozens of the victims. The Pakistan document is thus not significantly different from what India says happened-except that it gives Saeed a complete miss.

The chargesheet filed by the FIA in the anti-terrorism court on November 25, 2009 has nothing on Saeed even though Ajmal Kasab – the lone attacker who was captured alive – confessed that the LeT founder visited the 10 terrorists in Karachi and saw them off before they set sail for Mumbai in November 2008.

The chargesheet states that the seven accused-Lakhvi, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu al-Qama, Abdul Wajid alias Zarrar Shah, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmad and Younas Anjum-and 20 others set up training camps at Yousuf Goth in Karachi and at Mirpur Sakro in Thatta in Sindh province and obtained firearms, grenades and explosives for carrying out the attacks.

It acknowledges that Kasab, “a Pakistani national arrested in India”, and the nine other attackers were trained in the camps in Sindh. “You accused Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, being operational commander of LeT, were mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack as you first received instructions and training and then imparted the same training, in the making and use of firearms, explosives, bombs and grenades to your coaccused, Kasab, and 9 other terrorists killed in India ,” the charge-sheet states.

The charge-sheet, filed exactly a year after the attacks, said that the attackers targeted Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Macchimar Colony, Cuffe Parade, Colaba, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station and Leopold Cafe and created terror and “a sense of fear and insecurity in the people at large in India and Pakistan”.

“By your aforesaid acts of terrorism, you disrupted the trade between (Pakistan and India) and also disrupted normal civil life of people of the two countries,” it said. These offences are punishable under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 as well the country’s Penal Code.

Jamil Ahmad and Younas Anjum were charged with providing Pakistani Rs 3.98 million through banks in Karachi and Muzaffarabad for carrying out the attacks, while Mazhar Iqbal and Abdul Wajid were accused of directing the attackers through VOIP connections, mobile phones and satellite phones. The seven men were also charged with providing rented houses and acquiring inflatable boats, a Yamaha engine, cellphones, GPS systems and the boats Al-Fouz and Al-Hussaini for the attackers.

The charge-sheet further states that Kasab and the other terrorists were “trained and launched from Pakistan, for carrying out the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai” that killed 166 people. Significantly, the charge-sheet names dozens of Indian victims, with the first name in the list being that of policeman Tukaram Omble, who played a pivotal role in Kasab’s capture.