Setting sail

On November 22, when they were about to set sail from Pakistan on the vessel Al Hussaini, Lakhvi again met the group to wish them luck and see them off. “They were told to create an international incident and fire indiscriminately causing the maximum deaths possible. They were also instructed to take hostages in order to ensure that the gun battles could be prolonged,” says Maria.

According to Kasab, the ten terrorists were kept in a room below the deck of Al Hussaini and it was here that they got to know each other’s real identities as well as the different targets assigned to the sub-groups. Kasab has told the police that after a considerable span of time, he and the other nine terrorists felt a thud on the hull of the boat and were called up to the deck. There, they saw four men getting onto Al Hussaini from a trawler (identified as MV Kuber) and they themselves boarded the trawler keeping the ‘sarang’ of the boat (identified as Amar Singh Solanki) hostage. Abu Ismael led the entire group and was in charge of handling the GPS. A diary recovered from Kuber also contains a duty list and schedule for the ten, with two of them on guard duty at any given time.

The assault

On reaching a spot about four nautical miles from Mumbai’s coastline, the terrorists slit Solanki’s throat. They inflated their brand new dinghy that had been painted to appear old, and hugged each other. According to Kasab, they did not say a word to each other on the last leg of their journey to Badhwar Park where they got into four taxis and headed to their destinations. Each was carrying an explosive device weighing approximately 8 kg.

... contd.