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Mumbai gunman tells of thwarted plans for rooftop stand-off
THE sole gunman captured in last month's Mumbai attacks originally intended to seize hostages and outline demands in a series of dramatic calls to the media, his confession statement to police says. Mohammed Ajmal Amir said he and his partner, who massacred dozens of people in the city's main train station, had planned a rooftop stand-off, but abandoned the plans because they could not find a suitable building, says the confession obtained by the Associated Press at the weekend.Islamabad has refused to acknowledge Amir's nationality, complaining that India has yet to furnish any evidence. Amir's seven-page confession, given to police over repeated interrogations, offers chilling new details of the three-day rampage through India's commercial centre that left 164 people plus nine of the 10 gunmen dead. He said the assault, which started on November 26, was initially set for September 27, though he does not explain why it was delayed. After reaching Mumbai, Amir and his partner, Ismail Khan, the group's ringleader, headed to the train station. "Ismail and myself went to the common toilet, took out the weapons from our sacks, loaded them, came out of the toilet and started firing indiscriminately towards the passengers," Amir told police. As a police officer opened fire, the two militants retaliated with grenades before entering another part of the station and shooting more commuters. The men then searched for a building with a rooftop where they had been told to hold hostages and call a contact named Chacha, whom Amir identified as Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind behind the attacks who has been detained by Pakistani authorities Chacha, which means "uncle" in Hindi, would supply phone numbers for media outlets and specify what demands the two should make. Taking heavy fire from police, the two had trouble finding a "suitable building" and stormed a hospital they mistook for an apartment building. There, they searched for hostages and traded more gunfire with security forces. When they left, a police van pulled up and the two tried to take shelter behind a bush during the shoot-out. Amir was hit in the hand as Khan returned fire. Police have confirmed the van was carrying top police officials, including the head of the anti-terror squad who was killed. In the confession, Amir, 21, describes his conversion from an aspiring street criminal to a loyal soldier for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group banned by Pakistan in 2002 and blamed by India for the attacks. He came to the organisation last year while looking to buy guns to commit robberies. Amir went on to receive training in weapons handling and other skills, attending at least six Lashkar camps. He said Lakhvi, Lashkar's operations chief, recruited him for the Mumbai attack. Posted by: john frum 2008-12-14 |
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