LeT recruits to learn from Kasab's mistakes

Captured terrorist makes sensational revelation

A special “Kasab class” is part of the training module for new recruits of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). As part of it, the recruits are told about the mistakes committed by Ajmal Kasab during the deadly Mumbai terror attacks.

The detail emerged during interrogation of LeT terrorist Mohd Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzala, a resident of Multan in Pakistan, who was arrested by the police in the third week of last month in South Kashmir, according to official sources.

Giving details of his background, Jutt told interrogators his father was a retired army driver and he, along with his brothers, was part of madrassas (religious schools) owned by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for LeT, said the sources.

Jutt is the first LeT terrorist who has said during interrogation that he had met Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist hanged in last November after being sentenced to death for his role in the 2008 Mumbai carnage.

Accused of killing many policemen in South Kashmir, Jutt is reported to have said he was part of LeT's Borevalla Sahiwala camp in the Multan district of Punjab, where he had met Kasab, whose father was a butcher at the same madrassa.

He recalled Kasab as being reserved during his brief interaction, which came months before the Mumbai attack.

Jutt reportedly told his interrogators that during “Daura-e-Sufa” (training cadre for religious indoctrination) at Maksar Aksar Camp in 2009, the LeT bosses gave a video presentation to new recruits in which there is graphic description of Kasab's mistakes.

Among the mistakes pointed out by the LeT in its presentation was Kasab and his team's inability to destroy the boat that carried them to the Mumbai coast, speaking on satellite phones with real identities, inability to take hostages and getting arrested, said the sources.

A Class V dropout, Jutt had entered Kashmir through Keran in North Kashmir in October 2012. He shifted to South Kashmir after spending the winter of 2013 in the Dachigam forest along with 21 LeT terrorists. He claimed he was tasked with carrying out sensational killings of policemen and Central paramilitary forces, said the sources, adding that he was allegedly involved in the killing of a police officer at Pulwama in May 2013.

He was also allegedly involved in an attack on army camp in June 2013 and in attacks on police patrol parties in Tral, Shopian and Kulgam—all in South Kashmir.

The accused had also planned the assassination of ruling National Conference MLC from Wachi, Showkat Ganaie, in South Kashmir, but the plan had to be aborted because of heavy police presence, said the sources.