IHK police gave IB 35 suspicious cell numbers 5 days before 26/11

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: In yet another charge on India's premier intelligence agency Intelligence Bureau (IB) sitting over sensitive inputs that could have averted the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, a private TV network claimed that the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) police had handed over to the IB 35 cellular phone SIM card numbers for immediate monitoring five days before the attack.

At least three of the SIM cards were used by terrorists from Mumbai on the day of the attack to keep in touch with their handlers in Pakistan. The IB only realised this when the terrorists had carried out the attack. One of the SIM cards was recovered from the cell phone used by Ajmal Kasab.

The TV channel said IHK police recovered the SIM card numbers in a covert operation of infiltrating into the ranks of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) and alerted the IB that these SIM cards were acquired from Kolkata by over-ground workers (OGWs). A note reportedly sent by IHK police to the IB said, "These numbers need to be monitored and information taken from these numbers regarding the contents of the conversation, current locations of the call detail records are required for further developing the information."