26/11 attacks: 'US intel agencies had evidence of ISI's hand in 2009'
While Pakistan has always denied playing a role in the attacks, a report in the Washington Post says that by 2009, US intelligence agencies had gathered enough proof about ISI's complicity in the devastating terror strikes.
US intelligence agencies had evidence about Pakistan spy agency ISI's involvement in the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured, a Washington Post report has revealed.
While Pakistan has always denied playing a role in the attacks, The Washington Post said that by 2009, US intelligence agencies had gathered enough proof about ISI's complicity in the devastating terror strikes. | Never seen photos of Mumbai attacks
This is not for the first time that US intelligence agencies have pointed towards ISI's involvement in the Mumbai attacks. Former CIA analyst and a leading counter-terrorism expert Bruce Riedel had also claimed that the ISI provided tactical and logistical support to the Mumbai attackers.
Riedel had said that that 26/11 attacks were aimed at triggering a war between the two nuclear-capable nations. | Read: Why India didn't strike Pakistan after 26/11
"The Pakistani mastermind of the Mumbai plot, LeT leader Hafiz Saeed, remains free in Pakistan, where he continues to be a darling of the ISI and regularly calls for more attacks on India and America," Riedel had said.
'Mumbai attacks planned a year in advance'
Lashkar terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley had recently revealed that the 26/11 attacks were planned out over a year in advance by various groups and agencies of Pakistan.
Deposing before a Mumbai court from an undiclosed location in US in February, Headley had said that ISI official Major Pasha and LeT functionary Sajid Mir and others met in 2007 to discuss plans to set up a business for (him) Headley in Mumbai.
Later, in November 2007, he met top Lashkar leaders when the proposed terror attacks on Mumbai were planned in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.
Pakistani authorities have arrested seven LeT members involved with the planning of the 2008 Mumbai attack till date. However, the trial in the case is moving at a snail's pace in that country.
The mastermind of the attacks, Lashkar's operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was also arrested but was released on bail in December 2015.
In March, the Pakistan government asked India to send all the 24 witnesses of the Mumbai 26/11 attacks to Pakistan to record their statements in the Anti-Terrorism Court in Islamabad.
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