Revealed: How Indian aides helped 26/11 Pak attackers

Mumbai: The maps and layout of strategic locations and targeted sites as well as other key inputs were provided to the 26/11 attackers by Indian accomplices trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a police official here said.

"The Indian duo, Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed Shabbir, have confessed to carrying out a recce of important places in Mumbai prior to the attacks," said Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria on Wednesday night.

The Uttar Pradesh Police, which had arrested Ansari in connection with some other case, had recovered some maps and CDs of key locations in Mumbai.

The duo had sent the details of their recce operations to their handlers in Pakistan well before the terror strikes, Maria said.

"While Ansari confessed to carrying out the recce, Shabbir has given out more information about the attack, including details which had not come out during their interrogation conducted earlier," he added.

The duo had been nabbed by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with the attack on the Rampur Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp.

Maria said the inputs provided by Ansari and Shabbir proved useful to the LeT in carrying out the attacks on five targets - the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, Hotel Trident-Oberoi, Leopold Cafe and Nariman House - in Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008. At least 170 people were killed in the terror carnage that lasted nearly 60 hours.

Ansari had marked out important locations in Mumbai on the maps recovered from him.

Among the places he had "surveyed" included the Raj Bhavan, the residence of the chief justice of the Bombay High Court, the state government headquarters, the state legislature building, the US Consulate, the Mumbai and Maharashtra police headquarters, the Gateway of India, Churchgate, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the Mahalaxmi railway station and the Bombay Stock Exchange building.

According to Maria, Ansari had gone around Jaslok Hospital, World Trade Centre, Navy Nagar, Lion Gate - entrance to the naval docks areas, R C Church, Minara Mosque, Jama Masjid, Haji Ali shrine, Capitol and Sterling cinemas, and deluxe hotels in the city and suburbs.