Pakistan to quiz 'dead' 26/11 terror handler Sajid Mir
Mir, who directed the terrorists from Lahore during the siege in Mumbai, will be quizzed for his links with LeT operation commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed," the FIA official said.
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FollowSajid Majeed Mir, the handler of terrorists who executed the 2008 Mumbai attacks and was once declared dead by Pakistan, will be interrogated by authorities in Islamabad in connection with the probe into the deadly carnage.
The Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore earlier this month. The action was part of Islamabad's attempt to come out of the Financial Action Task Force grey list.
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A senior FIA officer associated with the probe of the 26/11 case said that a Federal Investigation Agency team will interrogate Mir in Gujranwala jail for his alleged role in the Mumbai attack case. He is currently incarcerated in the Central Jail Gujranwala.
Mir, who directed the terrorists from Lahore during the siege in Mumbai, will be quizzed for his links with LeT operation commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed," the official said.
The 26/11 case has been pending in the anti-terrorism courts in Rawalpindi and Islamabad since 2009. Six arrested suspects -- Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed, and Younis Anjum -- face charges of abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attacks. They are detained at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
Since India has refused to send its 24 witnesses to Islamabad to record their statements, the FIA said, the case cannot proceed further. The 26/11 masterminds Hafiz and Lakhvi are serving a term of several years in terror financing cases at Kot Lapkhpat jail in Lahore.
Pakistan had in the past claimed that Mir had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and sought proof of his death. This became a major sticking point in the FATF assessment of Pakistan's progress on the action plan late last year. That caused the case against Mir to gather pace, leading to his eventual arrest and prosecution.
Before the last meeting of the FATF, Pakistan reportedly told the Paris-based agency that it had arrested and prosecuted Mir in order to seek its removal from the FATF's grey list'.
Lahore-born Mir reportedly spent two years carrying out reconnaissance and scouting targets in Mumbai with the help of American terrorist David Coleman Headley, who is serving a 35-year sentence in the US for his role in international terrorism.
In November 2008, ten LeT terrorists unleashed a bloodbath in Mumbai after coming from Karachi. The terrorists carried out coordinated strikes in India's financial capital and killed 166 people and injured over 300. Nine terrorists were killed while lone survivor, Ajmal Kasab was caught and hanged after a trial.
Mir's connection with Hafiz goes back to 1994 when the former was just 15. He then rose in the LeT's ranks and was associated with its international operations wing. He was also linked with Al Qaeda.
In 2005, he used a fake passport to secretly visit India and stayed for about 15 days. He posed as a cricket fan to watch a match between India and Pakistan.
In 2009, Mir joined hands with Headley on an aborted plan to attack a newspaper office in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mir, who had a bounty of $5 million on his arrest, is on India's most-wanted list for his role in 26/11.
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