7/11 prime accused attended training camp in Pak

Faisal Sheikh, a prime accused in the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai [ Images ], has confessed to police that he had gone to Pakistan in 2002 and attended a training camp near Muzaffarabad allegedly run by the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence.

Sheikh, in his confession to the Anti-Terrorism Squad, said he attended a programme organised by the banned Students Islamic Movement of India [ Images ] in May 2001 at Pune, where he was told about atrocities on Muslims during the 2002 sectarian violence in Gujarat and the Mumbai riots in 1992-93.

This influenced him to go to Pakistan, he said in the confession that was submitted on Friday to a Maharashtra [ Images ] Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai.

Sheikh travelled to Lahore [ Images ] by the Samjhauta Express and met an Indian Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ] operative from Hyderabad Abdul Razzaq [ Images ], who influenced him to undergo training in arms at a camp near Muzaffarabad.

During his stay in Pakistan, he met Lashkar-e-Tayiba's commander for India Azam Cheema, he said in the confession recorded by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Brijesh Singh on November 5.