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| India-Pakistan |
| Two Suspects Questioned About Cellphone Cards Used In Mumbai Attacks |
| 2008-12-08 |
| Indian police said Saturday that they are questioning two suspects accused of illegally purchasing cellphone cards that might have been used by the gunmen who carried out the attacks in Mumbai last month. The suspects, Tausif Rehman, 28, and Mukhtar Ahmed Sheik, 35, were arrested Friday night on allegations that they used forged documents to buy the cards, police said. "We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai," Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner of police in Kolkata, where the arrests were announced, told the Reuters news agency. SIM, or subscriber identity module, cards allow the transfer of data from one phone to another. Mumbai police officials earlier traced some of the SIM cards used in the Mumbai attacks to West Bengal state, whose capital is Kolkata. Police initially dismissed the notion that any domestic support network had been involved in the operation, which the Indian government says was carried out by a militant group based in Pakistan. But in the past three days, Indian officials have been trying to determine whether some Indians provided logistical help to the gunmen. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attacks, which left more than 170 people dead and more than 230 injured. Police said Rehman, who was arrested in Kolkata, allegedly supplied at least 22 cellphone cards to Sheik, who was arrested in New Delhi and is of Kashmiri origin. The two were remanded until Dec. 19. "Thirteen such SIM cards were bought by Tausif, which were passed on to Sheik. Some of these cards were used by terrorists involved in the attack in Mumbai," the public prosecutor in Kolkata, S. Pathak, told the Press Trust of India. However, a senior police official told the Associated Press that Sheik was part of a semiofficial counterinsurgency network and may have been on an undercover mission. In Mumbai, Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said a diary found aboard a fishing trawler hijacked by the attackers provided proof "that there were only 10 gunmen on the boat." The diary named the 10 people and described each person's task -- some would watch out for the coast guard, others would cook, and others would steer the boat. Maria said authorities were searching "for anyone here or elsewhere in India who might have aided the attackers." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 (thump) "OW!" "Remember now?" |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-12-08 18:29 |