Press Trust of India
Thursday, March 05, 2009 6:50 PM (New Delhi)

FBI wants to question two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists–Abdul Wajid alias ‘Zarar Shah’ and Mazhar Iqbal alias ‘Abu Al Qama’– in a bid to unravel the entire conspiracy in the execution of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack including whether they had any links with the Pakistan Government.

The two militants, whose real identity was ascertained following increased cooperation between central security agencies and the FBI, were believed to be the key to the entire 26/11 plot and their inputs would be vital to know if any official agency in Pakistan provided help, official sources said in Delhi.

This issue has been discussed between the FBI and sleuths of Central security agencies and the US investigating agency had also asked Pakistan to provide access to both of them, they said.

FBI has registered a case in the Mumbai terror strikes as six US citizens also fell prey in the attack, the sources said. The real identity of ‘Zarar Shah’ and ‘Abu Al Qama’ was found after both Indian intelligence agencies and FBI carried out a painstaking exercise including gathering voice samples and questioning Lashkar terrorists held within India and abroad.

Wajid alias ‘Zarar Shah’ and Iqbal alias ‘Abu Al Qama’ are residents of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

While Iqbal alias Abu Al Qama was a resident of Mandi Tehsil of Punjab, Wajid alias Zarar Shah hailed from Sheikhpura district of the same province, the sources said.

On the role of the two in Mumbai terror strikes, the sources said Iqbal alias Abu Al Qama had been responsible for training the terrorists who carried out the strikes in Mumbai on November 26 last year in which 183 people were killed.

Besides having other aliases like Amjad, Iqbal is wanted in other high-profile cases, including the Red Fort encounter, the attack on Akshardham temple in Gujarat and serial bombings on the eve of Diwali in 2005 in the national capital.

Iqbal is in-charge of Lashkar operations in India except Jammu and Kashmir, the sources said. Voice samples of Wajid, the investigators said, were taken from the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and played in front of other Lashkar operatives arrested by the Indian security agencies and the FBI.

Wajid was in constant touch with the terrorists carrying out the strikes in Mumbai through VoIP, payments for which were made on his behalf in Karchi and Barcelona by Lashkar operatives.

Ajmal Qasab, the lone arrested Lashkar terrorist in the 26/11 case, had named the two as having provided them with training and other facilities in Pakistan. However, he only knew their alias and could not identify their actual identity, the sources added.