“We will never know if these are real names. For instance, even Pakistani Riyaz, whom we caught at Kalachowkie, never knew that Abu Umaid was Abu Osama who was also known as Abu Salem. We found proof of Abu Osama’s multiple identities after he was shot by us in the Antop Hill encounter,” said Jaijeet Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police.

Proof of Pakistani involvement comes from the arrests made not only by the ATS but also the Border Security Force (BSF) in West Bengal. The BSF has handed over at least two Pakistanis.

When ACP Jaijeet Singh interrogated the two intruders who were arrested on September 2 in West Bengal, he immediately knew they were Pakistanis by the dialect they spoke.

“An Indian Punjabi will say Main kar raanga, utthe jaa vanga (I will do it, I will go there) but when a Panjabi from Pakistan says the same, he will say Main kar saan, main utthe jaa saan,” said Singh.

They both had claimed to be “fidayeen” and disclosed that their masters had instructed them to reach Mumbai before Independence Day for a major operation before August 20.

Neither of them had been to Mumbai. “There are six others from the same batch who have managed to elude the police. We are still trying to trace them,” said Singh, whose ancestors hail from Mojiawala in Pakistan’s Gujrat.

While Mohammad Sohail Adnan’s roots were traced to Shaampur in Qadian, his colleague Mohammad Bilal hailed from Vahulla Tubba in Rawalpindi. Both of them had crossed the border with Nazir and expected to meet one Shahid Chacha who would have brought them to Mumbai. But they were stranded as Chacha ditched them, apprehending trouble.

... contd.