The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has nailed Pakistan’s lie that the Lashkar-e-Taiba has shifted its base to Srinagar. The FBI has given Islamabad clinching evidence to prove that the Jamaat and the Lashkar are one entity with different names, operating from Muridke near Lahore.
FBI agents involved in the 26/11 investigation have found that Lashkar spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi, who issues statements from Srinagar, is actually Jamaat spokesman Abdullah Muntazir, who frequently contacts the international media from the outfit’s Muridke headquarters.
The FBI, a source said, has enough evidence to prove that Muntazir plays Ghaznavi because of the Jamaat’s official stance that it has nothing to do with the Lashkar.
According to the FBI, Muntazir contacts the international media using anonymous phone numbers and posing as Srinagar-based Ghaznavi.
Even diplomatic circles in Islamabad, which have been working with the FBI to unearth the Lashkar network behind the Mumbai carnage, have endorsed the Indian contention that the Jamaat is the Lashkar. The UN security council had banned the Jamaat on December 10, branding it a front for the Lashkar.
The FBI findings say Muntazir used to act as a go-between for JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and LeT’s chief operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi before his recent detention.
The FBI findings prove that Saeed is very much the driving force behind the LeT, and that so-called Lashkar chief maulana Abdul Wahid Kashmiri is a mere dummy.
In another damning indictment of Pakistan’s free hand to terrorists, the FBI has found that Kashmiri operates from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and not Srinagar as claimed by Islamabad.
Saeed had stepped down as LeT chief to launch the JuD in December 2001. At that time, Yahya Mujahid was the spokesman as well as central information secretary of the Lashkar.
Saeed appointed Mujahid the Jamaat’s central information secretary and his personal spokesman. Muntazir was made official spokesman of the JuD and the “anonymous” spokesman of the LeT because of his better English communication skills.
In a statement issued two days ago, Muntazir denied posing as Ghaznavi. Approached for a comment on the FBI finding, Mujahid refused to speak while Muntazir hung up.
