At least five terrorist gunmen might have escaped the carnage in Mumbai and could strike again, says The Times quoting police sources.
Police sources revealed the hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen to approach Mumbai had equipment for 15 men on board – suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large.
'Fifteen jackets were found, 15 toothbrushes even,' said one police source. 'That more men were involved is possible.'
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only gunman to be caught alive, said during police questioning that 25 men were trained in camps in Pakistan for the mission, according to a leaked account of his police interrogation.
He has since claimed, apparently, that only 10 made the final trip to Mumbai, including him. The 21-year-old has said that he and his accomplices planned to kill 5,000 people. The Dail Mail has pictures of him in action and lying in a hospital bed.
Investigators believe that at least five or six additional people helped organise the logistics and carried out reconnaissance for the attacks.
Gunman says his father asked him to join terrorists
Kasab has told the police that his father asked him to join the
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group because the terrorists were willing to pay for him, reports DNA, a newspaper published from Mumbai
Kasab said his father, Amir, introduced him to an LeT commander
he called Chacha (Uncle) two years ago. Chacha paid his father while training him and 24 other young men, Kasab told the police.
A resident of
Faridkot in Punjab (Pakistan), Kasab hails from a poor family and worked as a labourer before joining the terrorists. His two younger
sisters and parents live in Pakistan, the police said.
Captured gunman's last stand
The Times reports:
Grainy mobile phone footage broadcast by Sky Television shows Kasab’s last stand: a small crowd is seen shouting and beating a man lying on the ground in a Mumbai street as police officers, blowing whistles and waving long sticks, try to restore order.
Police say that Kasab arrived with the other militants in two dinghies that moored on the seafront by the Gateway of India, near the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. The militants then commandeered several cars and set off towards 10 different sites across the city.
Kasab and another gunman, Abu Ismail, headed straight for Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s main railway station, where they opened fire with AK47s, killing dozens. It was there that he was photographed, holding his AK47 in one hand, in an image that has been seen around the world.
“They were right there,” recalled Sebastian D’Souza, the man who took the photograph, pointing to the spot on the platform where he first saw the gunmen. “They never raised their guns, they were very cool. They just kept firing from their hips,” he told Sky News.
“I saw lots of people shot dead, just lying there, nobody caring for them,” he said. “If somebody had engaged them in some crossfire . . . ” But no one did, so Kasab and his accomplice moved on to Cama hospital, according to Mumbai police.
There he and Abu Ismail shot dead three of India’s top police officers who were rushing to the scene in a vehicle. The terrorists continued their shooting spree, firing shots in the air at the Metro Cinema until their vehicle suffered a puncture.
Kasab and Abu Ismail then stole a golden Skoda Laura and were driving it towards Chowpatty beach when they were intercepted by a police team.
Abu Ismail was killed in the shoot-out, while Kasab was shot in his hand, according to police. It was then that he was attacked by the mob as shown in the mobile phone footage.
Initially he pretended to be dead, and was being taken to hospital when a police officer realised that he was breathing, according to Indian media reports. They said that when he reached hospital he told staff there: “I don’t want to die.” Later, after a police interrogation, he reportedly said: “Now I don’t want to live.”
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