ISLAMABAD: A five-member FBI team has visited Faridkot, the ancestral hometown Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai terror attacks, according to security sources in the village late Wednesday night. FBI director for South Asia William Robert headed the team.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko, when contacted by the daily Dawn newspaper in Washington later yesterday to comment on the team’s visit, said: “The FBI continues to assist Indian authorities with their investigation. We will work with the Indian authorities and our partners to follow leads wherever they may take us.” Asked if an FBI team had visited Faridkot, Kolko replied: “We are unable to provide details of what is being done. We refer you to Indian authorities or the US State Department for any additional information.”
Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, also did not confirm or deny the visit. “We do not comment on ongoing investigations,” he said, adding: “We would refer you to US officials for information on FBI-led investigations.”
“Other sources, however, claimed that the FBI team, which is visiting Pakistan to help with the investigation of the Mumbai terror attacks, has determined that Pakistan has no links to the attackers,” Dawn said on its website.
“The FBI also has determined that Ajmal Qasab, the gunman in Indian custody, has no links to any Pakistani government agency or individual,” it quoted the sources as saying.
“It was, however, not clear if the FBI team also has rejected the Indian claim that Ajmal Qasab is a Pakistan national, as reported by a private Pakistani television channel,” Dawn added.
Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities have obtained confessions from members of the Pakistani militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba that they were involved in the Nov. 26 Mumbai attacks, the New York Times reported yesterday citing a Pakistani official.
The confessions are sure to put pressure on Pakistan’s leaders, the influential US daily said in a report from Islamabad, noting that senior Pakistani officials have repeatedly complained in recent weeks that India has not provided them evidence of Pakistani complicity.
The most talkative of the senior Lashkar leaders being interrogated is said to be Zarar Shah, the unnamed Pakistani official was quoted as saying. The Times cited American intelligence officials as saying they believe that Shah, the group’s communications chief, has served as a conduit between Lashkar and the Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
His close ties to the agency and his admission of involvement in the attacks are sure to be unsettling for the Pakistani government and its spy agency. An operational leader of Lashkar, Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi is also said to be cooperating with investigators. News of Shah’s confession was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“These guys showed no remorse,” said the Pakistani official quoted by the Times. “They were bragging. They didn’t need to be pushed, tortured or waterboarded” into making their statements.
