LeT’s Google Earth link to 26/11 secured
Google Earth Pro-Gold Edition
Syed Abdul Rehman: A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader is learnt to have bought a Google Earth Pro service in October last year, weeks before the 26/11 terror strikes on Mumbai.
Sources in the security establishment feel Rehman may have played a crucial role in plotting the 26/11 attacks, especially since Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the attacks, has admitted to having been made familiar with the targets in Mumbai using Google Earth.
But Rehman, who handled David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, had not figured on the radar of Indian security agencies until now.
Inputs emerging over the past few weeks show that Rehman has been controlling a network of terrorists in Bangladesh, Nepal, the Gulf and, possibly, southern India.
Though not identified by the FBI by name, Rehman is the LeT handler ‘A’ in the criminal complaints filed by the agency in Chicago against Headley and Rana, the sources said.
Rehman was the key contact between the duo and Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani army commando-turned-terrorist. Investigators are also trying to verify the phone numbers in Pakistan that were used by handlers to talk to terrorists in Mumbai on 26/11 last year.
They are also trying to find out if the VOIP numbers that were used during the attacks had any connection with the Headley-Rana network. So far, no credible evidence has emerged in this regard.
Rehman, the sources say, is also the handler for Muthu, a Bangladesh based LeT leader who is a key operative of the LeT-HuJI network that has deep links in South India.
The most famous of the network’s operatives was Shahid Bilal, a resident of Hyderabad (India) who was involved in several terror attacks in South India and was mysteriously killed in Karachi in 2007.
So the picture emerging shows that Rehman was a senior LeT operative based in Lahore who, using the garb of an immigration agency First World Consultancy Pvt Ltd, was playing a key role in attacks in India.
He is believed to be handling the movement of terrorists, recce and, probably, the distribution of payments to various modules.
“To me it looks like Rehman was the one tasked to carry out recce and selection of targets, and providing details to the terrorists,” a senior source in the security establishment told.
The LeT network: Is Rehman the missing link?
Hafiz Saeed: Founder of LeT Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi/Yusuf Muzammil: Senior operatives of LeT, named masterminds of Mumbai attacks. Organised the training of the 10 terrorists, also handled them during the attack.
Zarar Shah: Key link between ISI and LeT, probably the communications chief of LeT.
Syed Abdul Rehman: Handles LeT network in Bangladesh, Nepal and south India; actively involved with LeT operatives in Gulf and the US and handled Headley and
Rana: was probably in charge of recce for the Mumbai attacks.
Related Posts :
