If this was not enough, preliminary investigations have revealed that the terrorists stayed on the Kuber for a few days and were in Indian territorial waters for at least 72 hours. While this is being verified, it has now been established that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai had left from the Azizabad area of Karachi on November 22-23.

Contrary to initial suspicion that they had “compromised” the Ukrainian crew of a merchant ship to enter Indian waters, it is now believed that the terrorists boarded a Pakistani vessel Al-Hussaini to reach close to Indian territorial waters near the Gujarat coast. Here onwards, the details are still hazy though it is certain that Indian trawler Kuber had been under observation for this purpose.

As of now, sources said, the assumption is that Kuber was hijacked possibly in Pakistani waters as the boat seemed to have been making short forays across possibly in search of better catch or some other purpose ¿ a regular Indo-Pak feature that has led to arrests of many fishermen off the Gujarat coast. Having noted this, the terrorists went for the trawler, hijacked it and apparently moved four members of the crew into the Al Hussaini and killed them there.

One member of the Indian crew, Amarsinh Solanki, was held hostage by the terrorists as a cover to avoid detection by Indian ships. He was later decapitated, as reported by The Indian Express today. Thereafter, the terrorists stayed in the trawler until the evening of November 26, moving along the Porbandar coast towards Mumbai. This period, perhaps, saw limited or no communication between handlers and associates already present in Mumbai.

... contd.