New Delhi Dec. 4: Indian intelligence agencies have revealed they have clinching evidence of the involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence in the horrific 59 hour orgy of violence unleashed on Mumbai last week.  There is specific information about the identity of the ISI personnel involved in the conspiracy, on those who had trained the terrorists and details of the actual locations within Pakistan where these terrorists were trained, officials said. Intelligence sources confirmed the confession of the sole surviving terrorist, telephone intercepts and forensic evidence collected from the places where the attacks took place had helped reveal the place where the terrorists had been trained and about their trainer. “The ISI’s connection is clear and evident”, the sources added.

It is not just India which claims to have such evidence: sources here say that American intelligence agencies as well as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation also has evidence — perhaps more —establishing such involvement. The FBI, which has shared information with Indian intelligence on the Mumbai attacks, has collected evidence of the role played by a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, in Islamabad on Wednesday, had given a clear and unambiguous message to his Pakistani interlocutors that Washington had enough evidence to show Pakistan’s hand in the attack. Sources said the US had asked Pakistan to crack down on the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and arrest its chief, Hafeez Mohammed Sayeed, saying that it has evidence of the LeT’s involvement.

Sources said that it was impossible to believe the Pakistan Army, which controlled and funded the ISI, had no information about the impending Mumbai attack. “The ISI is controlled by the Army. The Army’s top brass had information about the (Mumbai) operation,” the source said. There are reportedly more than 40 terrorist training camps in Pakistan. “We have information about 50 terrorist camps operating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”, an Indian official said.

New Delhi Dec. 4: Airports across the country, particularly those in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, have become fortresses after intelligence inputs of “armed assault at airports” and “hijacking” of aircraft.  At New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, for instance, CISF personnel are on “high alert” and NSG commandos have been put on “standby”, sources confirmed. At least three to four sky marshals will also be on board most flights, sources indicated.

In New Delhi, the Air Force is believed to have adopted a series of measures such as deployment of air defence guns, keeping fighter aircraft in a state of readiness for scrambling at short notice, and radars to detect low-flying aircraft flying at tree-top levels. Airports in other cities, including Hyderabad, are also on a high state of alert.

Security measures at New Delhi’s IGI Airport already in place include explosive detection systems, “ground bomb killer blankets” (to minimise impact of explosions), thorough frisking of passengers including ladder-point frisking before boarding, checking of hand baggage, thorough X-ray of check-in baggage and deployment of sniffer dogs. Cars coming into the airport area are being checked and the “perimeter intrusion detection system” is being tightened. Closed-circuit camera footage is being closely scrutinised.

Civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar said on Thursday that all measures are being taken to ensure the safety of passengers and “minimum inconvenience” to them. Mr Nambiar said his ministry had told airlines to ask passengers to report sufficiently early in advance at the airport to catch flights in view of the stringent security measures.

“We have not specified any time limit but have made it clear that passengers should be given enough time,” he said. Singapore Airlines has already asked its passengers boarding flights from India to arrive at the airport four hours prior to departure instead of the usual three. Jet Airways is “informally” asking passengers to report about two hours ahead of domestic flights, instead of the usual one. An official of state-owned carrier Air India said the airline has not issued any advisory for passengers, but added: "Our e-tickets for domestic flights, for instance, advise passengers to report two hours ahead of departure.” Airline officials said passengers are being advised to reach airports “earlier than usual”. Even if the increased checks have meant more inconvenience, passengers have realised that the security checks are meant for their own safety. India’s anti-hijacking policy formulated three years ago stipulates that hijacked aircraft which can be used as missiles to hit strategic targets or thickly-populated buildings can be shot down by the Indian Air Force.

Air traffic controllers have also been put on a state of high alert across the country, sources confirmed. “ATCs have been instructed to immediately inform the civil aviation authorities and Indian Air Force in case of spotting an unidentified aircraft on the radar,” sources said. In New Delhi, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major, held a meeting with defence minister A.K. Antony, and all measures to ensure air security were discussed. The IAF Chief also indicated that steps were being taken in view of intelligence inputs received.

Speaking to reporters earlier after laying a wreath at Amar Jawan Jyoti near India Gate to honour martyrs on Navy Day, Air Chief Marshal Major said the IAF was prepared to counter a 9/11-type aerial attack on targets in India. “This (the report about terrorists carrying out a possible aerial attack) is based on a warning, and we are prepared as usual.” The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security had earlier issued the alerts based on information of possible threat to aviation targets ahead of the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition on December 6.

Islamabad Dec. 4: In a mixed message to Pakistan, US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice,on Thursday asked Islamabad to investigate the “circumstances” under which the Mumbai terror attacks were carried out and take the responsibility of dealing with non-state actors operating from its territory but  also  claimed that Pakistan “is indeed fighting to root them (terrorists) out wherever they find them. And therefore I found these conversations (with the leadership here) quite satisfactory.”

After holding talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Ms Rice who flew in Thursday morning from New Delhi  first said Pakistan must provide “robust” and “effective”  cooperation to India in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror strikes to justice but added Pakistan had given assurances of its commitment to root out terrorism and round up anyone connected to last week's attack in the Indian city of Mumbai.

“Extremists who continue to strike” in various parts of the world have struck here in Pakistan.  “This is also Pakistan’s security concern and in all of my meetings I have found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat,” she said in a departure from her tough talking in Delhi the day before.

Replying to a question on India sharing evidence regarding the attacks in  Mumbai that claimed 183 lives, Ms Rice said, “I think there is a lot of information about what happened here. And so this isn’t an issue of sharing evidence. There is a lot of information and there are many mechanisms through which to share that information. That information needs to be used now to get the perpetrators and to prevent them from doing this again.”

“We talked at length about the importance of Pakistan taking its responsibility to deal with those who may use Pakistan territory even if they are non-state actors,” she said at a press conference here after her meetings with the Pakistani leadership. “Pakistan needs to investigate the circumstances under which these attacks took place in Mumbai,” said Ms Rice, who was provided evidence by India on Wednesday about involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in last week’s attacks.

“There is a lot of information. There are many mechanisms for sharing information and mechanisms should be used,” she bluntly told Pakistan. Noting that the sophistication seen in the Mumbai strikes was never witnessed earlier in this part of region, Ms Rice said “there is urgency to get to the bottom of these attacks, urgency to bring perpetrators to justice and urgency to use this information to disrupt and prevent further attacks.”

Asked how confident she was about the Indian and Pakistani governments working together effectively, Ms Rice expressed hope that the two sides will keep the lines of communication open. “It’s a difficult time but I do want to just note that we are starting, when this incident happened relations between India and Pakistan had improved considerably. And so that’s a good thing. It's good that you are starting from a base in which relations were improving rather than relations in a bad state. But obviously what is going to need to be done here is that the cooperation, the efforts to move forward are going to have to result in bringing the perpetrators to justice and in preventing further attacks,” she said.

To a question on the US role in investigation into the Mumbai attacks, Ms Rice said Washington is prepared to help in whatever it can. “There’s considerable capacity on the side of India, there's considerable capacity on the side of Pakistan. It is our intention to augment that in any way that is helpful. I had conversations in Britain, they have the same attitude. We will be helpful in any way that we can but obviously the best thing is that these two countries do what they can through their own capacity to fully investigate and bring people to justice who perpetrated that,” she said.

New Delhi Dec 4: Bowing to pressure from its allies in Tamil Nadu, UPA government will send external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee to Sri Lanka to press for ceasefire between the government there and the LTTE. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Thursday led an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that India step up pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to declare ceasefire in the ongoing war against LTTE and the military as innocent Tamil civilians were being killed. “I requested the Prime Minister to send Mukherjee to issue a strong warning to the Sri Lankan Government to announce a ceasefire immediately and to hold peaceful negotiations with them. The Prime Minister agreed to send the external affairs Minister to Sri Lanka and told me that he will travel to the island nation as soon as possible,” Karunanidhi told reporters here after meeting.
On whether Mukherjee's visit will result in a ceasefire, the DMK chief said, “We are hopeful. We live on hope.”

Mr Kaunanidhi also met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and requested her to take steps in resolving the issue. He ruled out renegotiating the Katchathivu agreement, as ‘national and international issues would come in the way’. As many as 30 party representatives including PMK founder Dr S. Ramadoss, TNCC president K. V Thankgabalu and Viduthalai Chiruthaikal general secretary Thol Thirumavalan were among the delegation.  The Chief Minister has also demanded that the Centre allot Rs 1000 crore to the state as it faced extensive damage in the recent floods.

New Delhi Dec. 4: While the Pakistan Army’s role is clear, it is possible that the civilian government in Pakistan was not in the loop on the attack plot, and it’s also entirely possible that the government of Yousuf Raza Gilani might itself become a target of the terrorist strike.

This, they said, might be used by the Pakistani Army to heighten tensions with India to help it return to power. The sources said, contrary to the earlier theory that the terrorists had used a hijacked Indian fishing boat to reach Mumbai after sailing from Karachi, it was possible that more sophisticated means were used. Sources here spoke of a clear disconnect between Pakistan’s civilian government and the military establishment. Islamabad’s about-turn on sending the ISI’s director-general to India is cited as an example of this disconnect.

In a conversation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the attack, President Zardari referred to a Pakistani proposal for a meeting between the ISI chief and the head of India’s external intelligence agency, RAW, and the Pakistan government announced the ISI chief would travel to India. After a post-midnight call on Mr Zardari by Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, this decision was reversed.  When the terror attack took place, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was in India and had decided not to cut short his visit.  A few hours later, the Indian government was told at 2.30 am that Islamabad was sending a special aircraft in four hours’ time to take him back to Pakistan.

In what observers here read as a clear message to the civilian government, it was the Pakistan Army chief’s plane which was sent.  The foreign minister boarded it in New Delhi at around 7 am.

Bengaluru Dec. 4: The officials of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which provide security to the Bengaluru International Airport, on Thursday morning detained three Kashmiri youth loitering at  the airport and screened them and their baggage.

  They were later allowed to board the aircraft.  The three were booked to fly on Spice Jet flight SG 224 to New Delhi. The young men, aged around 20 years are students of private professional colleges in Bengaluru and were found moving around at the airport in a very suspicious manner. According to official sources, they seemed to be asking too many questions, were inquisitive and had a problem at the boarding pass counter and at the security check.

“We took them aside and frisked them thoroughly. We even made them open their shoes and books. Later we let them board the flight after we found nothing suspicious with them. But we informed our counterparts at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi about them. They may have come to reconnoiter the airport,” said the officer. He added that the CISF and police are taking all measures to make sure that there’s no security lapse. The BIA has turned into a fortress in the wake of a threat to blow up the airport. The paramilitary force and the State reserve police have thrown a stringent security cover at the airport and are holding multiple layer screening of passengers and their baggage.

In an unprecedented measure the CISF has also installed software to check the alertness of their personnel. The software called threat image perception installed in the screening machines also reflects the responses and alertness of the officials handling them. “They are regularly monitored,” said the officer.
 

New Delhi Dec. 4: Central intelligence agencies, as well as revenue intelligence wings engaged in tracing the funding of the Mumbai terror attacks, have  indicated that D-Company played a major role in providing funds to carry out the terror operation.

Sources in the intelligence agencies say, mafia don Dawood Ibrahim is closely associated with Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and several other terror groups operating from Pakistan. “On the basis of available inputs we can definitely say that money did not come from hawala channels for carrying out the Mumbai operations,” said a source, adding, “Officials who are investigating the case have seized several credit cards of leading private banks from the terrorists. The transactions on these credit cards are being scrutinised.”

There have been cases in the past when terrorists have used credit cards.  “We are definitely investigating the role of D-Company in providing funds for the Mumbai terror attacks. D-Company provides funds to  Lashkar and Al Qaeda. It is now officially a part of the LeT terror network. The ISI’s links with D-Company are old. There is a possibility that D-Company might have organised funds for this attack just as he did for the 1993 Mumbai stock exchange terrorist bombings,” said the official.  Dawood Ibrahim ran a substantial hawala operation out of Mumbai, Karachi and Dubai. He is believed to have acted as an Al Qaeda surrogate for several financial transactions, said the source .

Meanwhile, the financial intelligence unit of the Union finance ministry has been asked to examine the cards seized in Mumbai to ascertain their issuing authorities and places where they were used. The concerned banks are also being contacted, said the official. Terrorists might have used credit cards to make their payments, said the official. We have also contacted the Taj and Oberoi hotels in this regard, said the official.