The Times of India reports that following more than three years of investigation, Indian security forces have arrested Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Hamza, alleged member of Lashker-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous) and the Hindi instructor of 10 terrorists who executed the murderous attack in Mumbai in 2008.
The 30-year-old Ansari, aka Abu Jindal was arrested on June 21 when he arrived in India from one of the Gulf states, police said on Monday.
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai, were killed during the attack. Through the heroic actions of his nanny, the Holtzberg’s toddler son, Moshe, managed to escape.
According to The Hindu, the Mumbai Police on Monday obtained a warrant from a local court to get custody of Ansari.
“We will ask for his custody after the Delhi Police exhaust his custody on July 5,” a Mumbai Police source said.
The suspect is accused of crimes involving the use of weapons, explosives and terrorism.
Sources say his was the mysterious voice recorded during the conversation between the terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan.
In the recording, Ansari allegedly told the terrorist team to tell the media that the “attack was a trailer and the entire movie was yet to come.”
In the intercepted tapes, Ansari was directing the terrorists to conceal their Pakistani identity and identify themselves as Hindi.
Police said Ansari’s participation was also confirmed by Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist arrested during the Mumbai attack. Kasab told an Indian court that one person by the name of Abu Jindal had tutored 10 terrorists on how to speak Hindi.
The Mumbai Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told The Hindu that “the 10 men who attacked Mumbai left Karachi in Al Hussaini (boat), after which they hijacked the Indian shipping boat. Kuber. Kasab had said in his confession that Abu Hamza was one of the four persons who had come to see them off on Al Hussaini.”
Indian security agencies say they interrogated many terrorists to get to Ansari, who had been operating from terror camps in Karachi and Kashmir.