Three months ahead of the terror attacks in Mumbai, the group of ten terrorists who carried out the strikes were shown photos of their targets and not allowed to meet anyone lest the plot was leaked, a senior police official said on Saturday.
Each terrorist was shown photographs of their respective targets during a three-month training, Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria said today.
Mohd Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, the sole terrorist captured, and his group member identified as Ismail, a senior member of the group of ten, was shown pictures of the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus and explained the details of things inside the railway station, Maria said.
Based on hteinterrogation of Kasab, the police official said the group was trained at four locations -- Muridke, Manshera, Muzaffarabad and a unspecified location in Karach -- for over a year, he said.
Muridke is located near Lahore, Manshera in the north West Frontier Province and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The police had earlier said the group were trained by former army personnel but had not specified their nationality, he said.
"The group had been trained at the locations over the last year and a half. For the last three months, they were kept segregated in an undisclosed location," Maria said and added it was during this time that they were told of their targets.
He said the November 26 attacks on the country's financial capital was the first operation for Kasab but some of the nine other terrorists had been involved in operations before.
"This was the first operation for Ajmal and some of the others. However, some members of the group have seen action elsewhere," Maria said.
However, he refused to divulge where some members of the group had taken part in operations.
The police are probing from where the photographs of the rail terminus and other locations were obtained, Maria said.
According to the police, after landing in the dinghy in the Cuffe Parade area, the two terrorists who attacked CST took a taxi to the rail terminus.
Ajmal wanted to use the bathroom and went inside for about 10 minutes. After coming out, he and Ismail began shooting indiscriminately in the rail terminus, they said.
Ajamal also revealed that items like fake Indian college identity cards, currency and other material were handed over to them before they left Karachi, Maria said.
The police have also found a diary on board the fishing vessel Kuber, which was used by the terrorists, in which duty hours had been marked for each of them while on the boat.
"The diary written in Urdu lists duty hours for each of the ten persons of the group," Maria said, adding the names mentioned matched those given by the arrested terrorist.
The members of the group took turns at manning the watchtower of the boat and guarding the captain of the vessel Ajaysinh Solanki, who was later killed when the boat reached near Mumbai's shores.
The police said the diary is proof that there were only ten terrorists on board the vessel.
Maria said they were still in the process of verifying the details of each of the terrorists killed in Mumbai.
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