For the first time, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Ghafoor on Thursday admitted that the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai had “local support”.
He said these supporters had been identified and were among the 16 wanted accused on the list given to Pakistan. The rest on the list are Pakistanis. “We have identified the local (Indian) supporters of the Mumbai attackers and their names have been submitted to the Pakistani government as wanted accused in our case,” Ghafoor said.
He, however, refused to disclose how many locals were involved and their names. But in New Delhi, an Indian home ministry official said: “We’ll need to check with the Mumbai police on the statement.”
The official said the ministry had not spoken about this because investigations were not over. “They were here many months before the attack doing the ground workÖ We know they are holed up in Pakistan,” Ghafoor said, adding that they had provided financial support.
The local supporters were from north India and had criminal records, said the police chief. The two Indian Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives — Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed —†in police custody, are not on the list.
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