Ajmal Amin, the only militant arrested during the operation, told interrogators that the dozen ultras who sailed from Karachi had come to Sasool dock from where they were taken first to Cuff Parade and later to Gateway of India in boats arranged by a front man of Dawood, who runs several custom clearing houses in Mumbai, the sources claimed.

Mumbai police and central security agencies have launched a massive manhunt for the businessman considered as a henchman of Dawood, who has been listed as Global Terrorist having links to al-Qaeda by the United States.

The suspect looks after some customs clearing mechanism and also indulges in diesel smuggling for the underworld don, the sources claimed.

After getting into waiting boats arranged by Dawood's gang in Mumbai, arms, ammunition and plastic explosives were quickly transferred to the waiting boats that took the terrorists to the Gateway of India which was had been marked as launching pad for the terror strike, the first of its kind in the country terrorism history.

The Intelligence agencies had sent a warning note to Coast Guard to keep a watch for an unidentified Pakistani trawler sailing from Karachi port which may enter into Indian waters. While the coast guard was looking for a Pakistani or unidentified vessel, the terrorists hijacked Indian fishing trawler ‘MV Kuber’ killing its crew and entered the Mumbai seas.

The Coast Guard captured the abandoned vessel which had a Global Positioning System as it was was drifting nearly four nautical miles off the coast of Mumbai on Thursday morning, several hours after the terrorists struck.

The terrorist claimed during interrogation that they had even planned to leave Mumbai back for Karachi, if luck favoured them, the sources said.

This solves the mystery of Global Positioning System instrument located from MV Kuber which was fed with a return map to Karachi, the sources said.

The underworld don's men had also provided a complete pictures of the two hotels and the Chhabad House, which houses the Israelis.

Meanwhile, investigators were going through the call data details downloaded from the satellite phone also recovered from the abandoned trawler.

It revealed numbers that have been traced back to the LeT's ‘chief of operations’, Muzamil.

The terrorists had been in constant touch with their masters across the border and some of the communications have been intercepted by both the army as well as the elite National Security Guards.

The militant said Taj and Trident-Oberoi were selected because the two hotels have a large clientele of Britishers and US citizens besides that a large number of Israeli businessmen had come to Trident for attending a diamond exhibition, the sources said.

The militants were also asked by their ‘masters’ to engage security personnel in negotiation besides throwing grenades.

The two militants holed up in Nariman House had made attempts to hold talks on two occasions, the sources said.