Two ISI men were inside 26/11 control room: Jundal

New Delhi: A senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, identified only as "major general saheb", was among the 10 people present in the control rook set up in Karachi to orchestrate the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, key suspect Abu Jundal has told Indian investigators, an officer said.

Indian intelligence agencies are still to ascertain the identity of the LeT militant.

However, they are convinced that at least two of the 10 people present in the control room on November 26, 2008, were from Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as per Jundal.

"Till now, Jundal has informed us of some persons present in the control room. He identified one of them as 'major general saheb', whose original name is yet to be ascertain. He seems to be a high-ranking LeT militant. This apart, Jundal has identified Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Muzammil alias Yusuf as those present," an officer in the investigating team told IANS.

Jundal had been arrested by the Indian investigating agencies after he was nabbed in Saudi Arabia and deported on June 21. He is at present in custody of the Delhi Police Special Cell and is being interrogated for his links with several terror attacks in India, including the November 2008 Mumbai strike.

After 12 days of questioning Jundal, India is now convinced that the 26/11 attack took place with state support and that the ISI played a key role.

"But investigators need more time to collect irrefutable clues and evidence," the officer said.

Jundal, a highly motivated LeT member, has been revealing information about the 26/11 operation, that claimed 166 lives and left 238 people injured, to the investigators in trickles.

He is being questioned by various agencies, including the special team of Mumbai Police's ATS handling the 26/11 investigation, IB, Delhi Police special cell team and National Investigating Agency (NIA).

"The name and rank of the ISI officers was not known to Jundal. At least, that's what he claims and reasons out that he was not allowed to ask them who they were when he met them in the Karachi control room," the officers said.

They also said that Jundal only knew the names of LeT leaders Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, whom he used to meet.

But he was positive that the two, whom he could not name, were ISI officers, all from their distinctive behaviour and conduct, which seemed military and bureaucratic.

"Jundal has revealed many things to interrogators, but before confirming any thing, we will have to check thoroughly what he has talked about," Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar told a television channel.

Neeraj Kumar, a terror investigation expert who questioned Jundal for about 40 minutes on Sunday, also said that the investigators will seek extension of Jundal's police custody, which ends on July 5.