NEW DELHI — The police in New Delhi have arrested a man suspected of being one of the planners of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, the government said Monday. The police did not provide the suspect’s name, referring to him only by the alias Abu Jindal. Indian news media reports have identified him as Sayeed Zabiudeen Ansari.
Indian Police Arrest Suspect in 2008 Mumbai Attack
By HARI KUMAR
Published: June 25, 2012
The man, thought to be a member of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, is accused of delivering instructions by telephone to 10 heavily armed Pakistanis as they were carrying out the two-day siege that terrorized Mumbai with attacks on a railroad station, a major hotel, restaurants and a Jewish center.
The authorities were able to intercept and record some of the telephone communications. In one conversation, a man the attackers addressed as Jindal told the two at the Jewish center, Nariman House: “This is just a trailer. The real film is yet to come.”
Those attackers eventually killed six of their hostages, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife, Rivka Holtzberg, and were killed themselves by Indian commandos.
Ajmal Qasab, the sole surviving attacker, told the Indian authorities that the man issuing instructions over the phone had helped train him and his nine fellow attackers in Pakistan, teaching them Hindi, according to news reports. Mr. Qasab was tried and sentenced to death for his role.
S. M. Krishna, India’s foreign minister, praised the police for “doing a magnificent job.”
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