NEW DELHI: Suspected ISI operative Major Sameer Ali visited the Karachi control room of the 26/11 attacks when the mayhem engulfed Mumbai and gave several instructions to LeT 'commander' Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
This was stated by Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, during his interrogation by security agencies, official sources said.
Pakistani-American LeT operative David Headley too had given information about Major Sameer's role in the 26/11 attacks.
While he was training 12 terrorists in Muridke in Pakistan for the 26/11 terror attack, Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jindal was getting continuous information about Mumbai from David Coleman Headley who was on a recce of the metropolis as a Lashkar-e-Taiba spy.
Revealing this to investigators, Jindal has said that 12 terrorists and not 10 had been selected to attack Mumbai.
Pakistani-American Headley was passing on "day-to-day" information about Mumbai to LeT chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who in turn provided it to Jindal, who was training the terrorists at Muridke from 2007 till just before the attack on Nov 26, 2008, investigators said.
Another suspected ISI officer Sajid Mir, who was also involved in the Mumbai attacks and conspiracy to carry out other terror acts in India, helped Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists involved in the 26/11 strikes, to get training in Baitul Mujahideen.
Mir was a key motivator and organiser of the country's worst terrorist attack which claimed 166 lives, Jundal told interrogators.
When the Mumbai attack was over, Major Sameer told all those present in the control room to disperse and go underground, the sources said.
While Jundal went back to Baitul Mujahideen, Lakhvi stayed at a protected house with his three wives.
Following international pressure, a few weeks after 26/11, sleuths of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency raided the control room and destroyed it, they said.
The court conducted in-camera proceedings as Delhi Police pleaded for Jundal's custody by invoking provisions under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The magistrate asked all others except Delhi Police officials and their counsel to vacate the court room.
However, the pleas of the other probe agencies seeking the custody of 30-year-old Jundal were heard in open court.
The NIA sought Jundal's custody saying it needs to quiz him to prevent another 26/11-like attack, while the Mumbai Police CID said it wanted him to confront him with the lone surviving Mumbai terror convict Ajmal Kasab.
Apart from these agencies, Pune and Mumbai ATS have also sought the custody of Jundal in connection with various terror cases.
The Pune ATS has sought Jundal's custody on the ground that the Supreme Court has directed that an expeditious trial be conducted in the Aurangabad arms haul case, while the Mumbai ATS wanted to quiz him regarding the Pune German Bakery blast and the attack on the Nasik police academy.
Jundal had allegedly trained the ten Pakistani terrorists who had attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, besides teaching them basic Hindi and apprising them about Mumbai's topography.
He was arrested from Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 21 and was in the custody of Delhi Police till July 5.
He has been arrested in connection with an FIR registered on November 22, 2011 relating to the arrest of Indian Mujahideen operatives and is also being interrogated for his alleged involvement in Jama Masjid, German Bakery and Chinnaswamy stadium blast cases.
He has been booked under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the Passport Act and various sections of the IPC.
