Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba's technology chief had posed as an Indian businessman while negotiating to buy from an American company a Voice-over-Internet Phone service that was later used by the LeT handlers to communicate with 26/11 attackers while concealing their actual origin.
The case is being tried in the Anti-Terrorism Court since 2009. There has hardly been any case in any ATC in Pakistan that is pending for over nine years.
It was in 1989, 39 years after the setting up of the Supreme Court in 1950, that Justice M Fathima Beevi was appointed. Meet the brilliant legal minds who have shattered the glass ceiling since then.
M L Tahiliyani has been appointed as a Special Judge to conduct the trial in the November 26 terror attacks in the city, Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor said omn Monday.
The Mumbai Police is expected to file a chargesheet into the 26/11 terror strike before January 24 and the two key Lashkar-e-Tayiba handlers in Pakistan are likely to be named in it.The lone surviving terrorist Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, whose Pakistani identity has been acknowledged by Islamabad, will face charges ranging from murder, attempt to murder and theft to waging war against the country, officials said.The government has already decided to set up a special court.
Can the claims by the Mumbai police that just 10 terrorists managed to hold Mumbai hostage for three days be believed? The sequence of events, observations by top security experts, the Intelligence Bureau and also the confessions of the arrested militant now in the custody of the Mumbai police, indicate that the operation was carried out by more than 10 men.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf walks the streets of Mahim, where Yakub Memon grew up and lived till the day before the serial blasts in 1993, on the day Yakub was hanged and discovers an undercurrent of unease and restrained anger.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday blamed Pakistan for the bail granted to Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, saying there might be some shortcomings on the part of the prosecution in taking forward the case.
Prime Minister Khan said his government was keen to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack to book, asserting that it was in the interest of Pakistan.
The horrific terrorist attack in Paris has been described as the copycat version of the 2008 Mumbai assault by security experts who believe that the incident will be a game changer for how the West looks at the threat terrorism presents to all.
'Saeed has been freed as the government decided not to detain him in any other case,' a top Pakistan official told PTI.
What distinguishes 26/11 from other bombings in big cities, for instance 9/11 in New York or 7/7 in London, is that it remains the best-documented attack in a digitally enhanced world, says Sunil Sethi
The oil mafia sheltered the 10 Pakistani terrorists in Machhimarnagar in Colaba and in fact a woman even showed Ajmal Kasab and his accomplice the way to Cama and Albless Hospital. The many theories floated before the Ram Pradhan committee, that looked into the attacks.
The board rejected the government's plea to extend his detention for another 3 months.
Saroj Kumar Rath, author of the newly-published book Fragile Frontiers: The Secret History of Mumbai Terror Attacks, speaks to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
'I reached Bhopal the day after the gas tragedy; the smell was still in the air. It was a professional hazard but I was not scared.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf explains how two cases separated by ideological motives were curiously similar on one account.
India questioned the functioning of Pakistan's notorious military courts.
Dhananjay Desai has been allowed to spread his poison to young men in Maharashtra and Goa over the last five years, by a 'secular' Congress-NCP government. The 23 cases pending against him have not stopped him. He and his supporters must have thought they were immune when they lynched a bearded Muslim at night. Neither Desai nor his followers, nor the police, nor their 'secular' political masters, must have expected the nationwide furore that followed, says Jyoti Punwani.
"Sushma Swaraj is a great asset to the nation. There is a no allegation at all. Still they want her to resign," he said.
President Pranab Mukherjee -- rewarded as president yet not trusted enough to be prime minister.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com presents the names of 10 global terrorists who, according to United Nations Security Council, are operating against India from Pakistan.
When then ISI director Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha visited Washington, DC for a meeting with CIA Director Michael Hayden, he admitted that the planners of the Mumbai attacks included some 'retired Pakistani officers' and that the attackers had 'ISI links, but this had not been an authorised ISI operation.'
The Indian Army, the Border Security Force, Hindu temples and the people of India, all have been targetted by fidayeen from Pakistan.
Saeed's release has virtually 'boosted up the morale' of the six suspects facing the trial in Pakistan for the last eight years, believe Saeed's supporters.
'The political leadership is not realising that it is dividing the uniform on the lines of religion.' 'This will lead to anarchy.'
'There is nothing in Headley's testimony. Where is he saying anything? He says, 'I don't know, I don't know.' He says 'I overheard somebody's speech.' Is this evidence? This is double hearsay.' 'If this (the Ishrat Jahan encounter) investigation is really carried out further it points to the heart of BJP's political leadership. And therefore they want you to distract you and say terrorist, terrorist.'
'Why has the rhetoric gone down on the Indian side, Durrani wondered aloud.' 'I said because almost total normalcy and peace had returned on the ground in Kashmir,' recalls Shekhar Gupta. 'The general gave me that career spook's laser look. And he said: "That situation on the ground can change in no time".' 'This was precisely when the Pakistanis began their first incursions into Kargil.' 'Durrani had been retired for five years.' 'But once the ISI boss, you are always in the know.'
A Mumbai court on Thursday pardoned Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, who had surveyed targets for the 26/11 attacks, and made him an approver in the case, a move that may unravel the conspiracy behind the brazen terror assault.
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
'I will need a few more pictures, sir, can I get some time from you for a more extended photo shoot?' asked Singh. Modi, ever-obliging before the camera, laughed. 'Sure, but let us plan to do it after my swearing-in is over in May!' The Balakot effect was evident. A fascinating excerpt from Rajdeep Sardesai's 2019: How Modi Won India.
Even as France mourns the bloodiest terrorist attack for 20 years, let's take a look at some major standoffs witnessed in the past:
'Mohammad Akhlaq's death isn't only about a Muslim being killed out of sheer communal bigotry, but also the denial of the Constitutional guarantees of "due process" under Article 21 and the freedom of choice,' says Shehzad Poonawalla, who has moved the National Commission for Minorities over the murder.
An active politician for over four decades, Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday completed one year in office as a copybook President, a period that was marked by proactive steps within and outside Rashtrapati Bhavan.
'In the short to medium term, the Myanmar raid will impose caution on Pakistan in planning another 26/11-like adventure. As a result of this caution, even if the proxy war ebbs, it will reduce the danger of escalation to a nuclear stand-off,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Goli is a special child, born on 26/11 at the Cama hospital in Mumbai while the terrorists were raining bullets outside. Six years later, Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com finds a family determined to give their children the best life they can afford.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday sought answers from the United Progressive Alliance citing an interview of former central Home Secretary Ram Pradhan which said he had told the then Home Minister about a local mole who allegedly helped carry out 26/11 attacks.
A senior former Obama administration official said if another attack would have happened like that, it would 'quickly escalates into a regional war'.
Neerja Pandey's Baby, one must say, wouldn't have been as interesting without the lead troika.
Zakir Naik, a gentle, rockstar televangelist, is dangerous as young Muslims may be swayed by his fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and justify victimhood and extremism, says Shekhar Gupta.