Pak Maj-Gen visited training camp: Kasab

By at 18 April, 2009, 12:12 am

MUMBAI: “Are you ready for jung (war)?” top Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi asked Ajmal Amir Kasab and his fellow terrorists. “Yes, we are,” they replied. “The duo told us that they had been fighting Indian forces in Kashmir for 15 years, and that we had to attack Hindustan from within by targeting its major cities.”
This is part of the chilling 37-page confession made by Kasab that was read out for the first time in the special trial court on Friday. The confession — which was later retracted by Kasab, who said it was given under coercion — reveals the manner in which the plot to attack Mumbai was meticulously planned and ruthlessly executed.
Referring repeatedly to his “Klashan” (an AK-47 rifle), Kasab laid bare the intensive training that went into wielding the automatic weapon, turning it into an instrument of mass destruction. Kasab and nine other terrorists were carefully watched by “ustads” (trainers) who imparted not just arms training, but also held indoctrination sessions.
The attackers were told they were targeting India’s economic might by shooting down foreign nationals in Mumbai. “We had to attack places such as Malabar Hill, the Taj and Oberoi Hotels that were frequented by foreigners. We had to specifically kill Americans, British and Israelis,” Kasab’s confession says.
“Lakhvi and Saeed divided us into pairs — the buddy system. He made five buddy teams of us 10 mujahids. Lakhvi said that on the 27th day of Ramzan, we would launch a fidayeen attack on Mumbai,” said Kasab. “We had to set fire to Taj and Oberoi Hotels and also plant bombs around them. The bombs were meant to lead to chaos and traffic jams. This would have prevented security forces from reaching us on time,” he continues.
At CST, Kasab was ordered to fire indiscriminately and “not distinguish between Hindus and Muslims”. But the brief was different for the hotel sieges: the terrorists were told to single out foreigners and spare the Muslims.
An enigmatic character who crops up in Kasab’s statement is a “Major General Sahab” who visited a camp at Baitul Mujahid to oversee their progress and skills. Kasab claims to be the best shooter of the group and Imran Babar, the worst.
Skills to hoodwink the Indian naval and police forces were also part of a one-month training module. The terror recruits were taught to pretend to be fishermen and assume false identities. Kasab was `Sunil Devesh Chaudhary’ from Hyderabad. “We were trained to go without food for 60 hours, but yet be able to climb mountains with a heavy bag,” he says in his confession, adding that “this training was very difficult and tough, and 10 cadet mujahids ran away”.