Mumbai: Maharashtra deputy chief minister R.R. Patil on Saturday said preliminary investigations into the attacks revealed that the terrorists planned to kill at least 5,000, judging by the arms and ammunition they possessed.
With the recovery of AK-47 rifles, grenades, arms and several hundred rounds of ammunition from terrorists who were gunned down as well as from the one and only terrorist caught alive, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasar, 21, "it is apparent they wanted to cause extensive destruction to human life," said Patil.
Remand
Kasar, a Pakistani national, was arrested at Marine Drive even as he and his companions began a killing spree. He was on Saturday remanded to police custody till December 11.
Terrorists had access to modern communications systems like GPS, satellite and mobile phones and also had maps of the hotels even as they received regular directions over phone from another country, said Patil. He also informed that there was no involvement of any locals in the attacks.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the state would also form a NSG-like force. When asked why the Mumbai and Maharashtra Police were not modernised or equipped with sophisticated equipment, he replied that all these years "our priority was development".
"The families of the security officials who lost their lives while fighting the terrorists will be given a compensation of Rs2.5 million [Dh190,000]," said Deshmukh.
Meanwhile, according to reports emanating from what the interrogators were told by the lone terrorist who was captured, it appears that terrorists who entered Mumbai began their killing spree on the high seas when they hijacked a fishing trawler, Kuber, and killed five fishermen who have been 'missing' since last week.
They pushed four of the fishermen and the fifth one, Balwant Tandel, was beheaded as the vessel neared the Mumbai shore. It appears that the captured terrorist revealed that 11 Lashkar-e-Toiba cadres had sailed off from Karachi to Mumbai.
