The where, when and how of Mumbai terrorists

HOW MANY TERRORISTS WERE TRAINED

India says 30 trained in camps in Pakistan for suicide missions. Police say only 10 attackers arrived in India by sea. The whereabouts of the other 20 militants are unknown.

HOW MANY TERRORISTS CAME ON THE BOAT

Local papers have also raised the question of whether more terrorists came to Mumbai, given that police found 15 jackets and toothbrushes on board the trawler that the militants hijacked to come to Mumbai.

Some reports also said two covers were found for dinghy motors on the trawler, while only one dinghy, which transported the terrorists to Mumbai, has been found.

A US counterterrorism official also said last week there is a possibility that some attackers ‘are still out there’.

But police say the other five jackets belonged to the crew of the trawler, who were killed and most of them thrown overboard. Police insist there were only 10 terrorists who arrived in India.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE OTHER TRAINED TERRORISTS

Police believe they may have been kept for other missions outside India, perhaps Afghanistan.

Of the attackers who ranged in age from 20 to 28 years, three, including leader Ismail Khan, had been involved in other militant “action”, according to police.

Their main contact in Pakistan, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, has also directed LeT military operations in Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and southeast Asia, the US government said.

HOW COULD THEY HAVE TRAINED WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAKISTANI STATE

Impossible, says India, which is why New Delhi is suspicious of its neighbour. India believes authorities in Pakistan, and the ISI, have for years turned a blind eye to militant groups — and sometimes funded and trained them.

The ISI has informants everywhere in Pakistan, and Indian analysts say it is unthinkable that this kind of training could go on without their knowledge.

The surviving terrorist from the attacks reportedly told investigators he had been trained by a former Pakistani army officer.

WHAT DID THEIR TRAINING INVOLVE

The terrorists trained for more than a year in three or four camps, according to police.

The training involved handling weapons, bomb making, survival strategies, swimming, seafaring and even dietary habits.

Once the 10 attackers were selected for the suicide mission, they were sequestered in a house for three months, and never saw the other 20 trainees again, the ‘New York Times’ reported.

The 10 were divided into five two-man teams and assigned a target each in Mumbai. They only knew each other by their aliases, and did not know of the others’ targets.

They only came to know each others’ real names and the other targets when they were being transported to Mumbai by sea.

Each of the 10 terrorists was armed with about a dozen grenades, a 9 mm pistol with two magazines, one AK-47 assault rifle with about seven magazines and 100-150 rounds of ammunition.

WHAT SORT OF TECHNOLOGY DID THEY USE

Police say they have recovered Global Positioning System equipment, a satellite phone and mobile phones from the gunmen and the trawler and the boat they came in, with which they kept in touch with each other and with their handlers in Pakistan.