‘20 more terrorists were ready to die, their whereabouts unknown’

The Mumbai police said that the 10 men who carried out the terror attacks here in November were among 30 recruits selected for suicide missions, and that the whereabouts of the other 20 were unknown.

The Mumbai police on Tuesday said that the 10 men who carried out the terror attacks here in November were among 30 recruits selected for suicide missions, and that the whereabouts of the other 20 were unknown.

It was the first time the police disclosed the larger number of recruits, all of whom belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The police said there was no reason to believe that the other 20 were in India, but expressed concern about that possibility.

“Another 20 were ready to die,” Deven Bharti, a Mumbai Police Deputy Commissioner, said in an interview. “This is the very disturbing part of it.” Bharti added that the information about the other 20 recruits came from the sole surviving attacker, Ajmal Amir Kasab, who was arrested during the attacks and has been in police custody ever since.

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Bharti also said that according to Kasab, the 30 recruits were provided with highly specialised training, including marine combat skills.

Once Kasab and his nine fellow attackers were selected by Lashkar leaders, they were kept sequestered in a house for three months, the Deputy Commissioner said.

There they were divided into two-man teams, each team assigned a different target in Mumbai to attack — information they were forbidden from sharing with one another.

They never saw the other 20 trainees again, Bharti said, according to the information provided by Kasab. NYT

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