Syed Zabiuddin Ansari rose perhaps to the highest level any Indian recruit of the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba had ever gone and had been sent to Saudi Arabia to enlist men to join the terror group and carry out more terror attacks in India, police officials said.
Zabiuddin was caught while in Saudi Arabia and sent to India where he was arrested by police on 21 June.
Jundal was sent to India from Saudi Arabia. Screen grab from CNN IBN
However, Delhi police sources said they are now attempting to track down the man who inducted Zabiuddin into the LeT from the Students Islamic Movement of India. According to the police, while Zabiuddin was always conservative, he decided to join the terror group after the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.
After being recruited by the terror group, he had reportedly undergone weapons training and after a failed operation in 2006 had left the country for Pakistan, police officials said.
Investigators say that Zabiuddin has told them the planning for the 26 November, 2008 attacks in Mumbai began earlier the same year and he was present in the ‘control room’ giving instructions to the gunmen involved in the attack until the end of the standoff.
However, the arrest Mohammed Ajmal Kasab by the Mumbai police had demoralised the terror group’s senior functionaries since they never believed any of gunmen would be caught alive and give Indian investigators any data about the planning of the attacks.
Putting the 26/11 attacks behind him, Zabiuddin had married a Pakistani woman and had actively begun to network with other terror groups operating in India, police officials say. While in Pakistan he met with Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, who were running the terror group Indian Mujahideen and may have provided them with support, they said.
He is presumed to have continued with supporting other terror groups until he was sent by his superiors to Saudi Arabia to get more people for the group, given he had allegedly been involved in similar activities while in India, police officials.
However, presently he’s lodged in the Delhi police special cell office which has three tiers of security and is being questioned by officials of investigating agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and National Investigation Agency about the links between the various terror groups in India.
6- LeT members were demoralised when Kasab was arrested alive by Indian authorities.
