ISI spent INR Two million for Mumbai blasts

According to Daily News & Analysis, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, had provided the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s Pakistan-based commanders money worth INR Two million to execute the July 11, 2006-blasts in Mumbai. Officers of the Intelligence Bureau and Anti-Terrorism Squad officers (ATS) have said that this was disclosed to investigators by the men arrested in the case. Officers also said the tracing of the funds to foreign shores was the clearest proof of the ISI’s involvement in the attacks. They further said that the funds, which were routed through Hawala (illegal money transfer) channels in the form of Saudi Arabian Riyals (SAR), went into the planning and execution of the attacks. A portion of the money was also routed in the form of US dollars. The ATS had recovered SAR 26,000 from Faizal Shaikh when he was arrested. ATS chief K. P. Raghuvanshi said: “So far we have been able to peg the amount spent on planning and execution at INR Two million. The amount is tiny, but only 10 per cent of the funds are normally earmarked for operational purposes by any terrorist organisation. The other 90 percent, goes into “infrastructure spending” – to sustain communication, networks, and training facilities, and to protect operatives.”  

Meanwhile, Raghuvanshi claimed on October 2 that the police has averted another terrorist attack planned by the persons involved in the 7/11 bombings. Without providing details of the second attack, which was planned anywhere “in or around Mumbai”, an unidentified ATS source told Indian Express, “We were surprised to note that some accused arrested in the case had not left Mumbai even about three months after the attack. Normally accused either go underground or leave the city where an offence is committed.”