The men behind 7/11 were tenants in the quiet South Delhi locality I live in. Frequent travelers, the four men flew to Mumbai a fortnight back. That was the last we, the unsuspecting neighbours, saw of them. It appears now they were actually members of that frightening club—a terrorist cell aka a sleeper module—and the South Delhi address was just a red herring. They had planned the attack with a precision the local Residents’ Welfare Association would have loved to see in Delhi Jal Board employees tasked with fixing dysfunctional ferrules. The men—the terrorists and not, I hasten to add, the DJB employees—are/were in Pakistan/Nepal/Bangladesh/Iran. This is an exclusive brought to you by this column and courtesy briefings from my high level sources in Intelligence agencies/home ministry/Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). They spoke to me on the condition that I did not ask them anything about the man in burqa at the Mumbai airport who was on every TV news channel Friday morning.

In the best traditions of journalism, I offer this version of the real story of the Mumbai blasts to add to Times Now’s, CNN-IBN’s, NDTV’s and India TV’s (I stopped watching Aaj Tak’s Mumbai coverage after it put six reporters on air simultaneously; it was too intimidating).

Times Now told me that Jabi, Fazal, Batkal and Riaz spent three to six months “meticulously planning” the operation that started when the bombs were assembled at a place “30 minutes away” from the Churchgate station. CNN-IBN told me the attacks were “well-planned and well-executed” and the plot was hatched in Kathmandu. Fayaz, Zabiuddin, Aslam and Junaid were the key operatives. NDTV had Zabiuddin and Fayaz in common with CNN-IBN. Kathmandu was referred to as well. I admit I panicked that I was going to hear the same version of the real story from two different channels. But NDTV had Kashmiri Rana and Javed as the two other players. India TV had gone beyond the Fayazes and the Aslams. An ATS team is leaving for London, the anchor said, we have exclusive information the team is ready to go, we know the team is about to leave. Cut to the correspondent: We have firm indications the team is about to depart for London, we know they are ready but I can’t say exactly when they will leave because my source has switched his phone off.

... contd.