26/11 HANDLER JUNDAL RAN CAB FLEET IN SAUDI TO HIRE FOR LET

Jundal’s parents have temporarily locked up their home in Hatti Khana.
ATS OFFICIAL , Marathwada unit

NEW DELHI: Abu Jundal, the Indian Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander believed to be one of the six handlers behind 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, took on the avatar of a taxi business operator in Saudi Arabia and used this front to recruit cadre.
Jundal, alias Zaibuddin Ansari, told interrogators that after fleeing Pakistan following the Mumbai carnage, he set up base in Saudi Arabia and started luring cadre for the LeT by promising them jobs.
“Jundal was told to lure Indians from economically-weak backgrounds desperately looking for employment in the Gulf,” said an officer. “He was also asked to seek funds for jihadi attacks on India and for providing legal aid to those arrested in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case.”
Apprehended in Saudi Arabia and arrested on arrival at Delhi airport on July 21, Jundal told interrogators that on November 26, 2008, he and the other 26/11 handlers were at a Pakistan Army cantonment in the Karachi town of Malir.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai police crime branch on Tuesday moved a Delhi court to get Jundal’s custody. He is currently being interrogated by the Delhi police. The Mumbai police also presented a request letter issued by a local court to produce Jundal before it.
Vinod Yadav, the chief metropolitan magistrate, has asked the Delhi police to respond to the plea by Wednesday, the next date of the hearing. PUNE/BEED: Abu Jundal, 36, one of the key handlers in the 26/11 strikes, has done the electrical wiring in the Beed district police chief’s office. His entire family, including his parents and four married sisters, continue to live in Beed.
Ansari completed an electrician’s course from the local Industrial Training Institute in 2004. The same year, he began working as an electrician and was with a contractor who bagged the contract for electrical work in the newly constructed office of the superintendent of police (SP) at Shivaji Square, said Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) sources. “While working as a wireman, there was no case against Jundal,” an official said, on condition of anonymity, because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The Beed police confirmed that Jundal had worked in the SP’s office. “But that’s a separate issue and not connected to anything,” said Dattatray Mandlik, Beed district SP.
All four of his sisters are married, the youngest one got married just a month-and-a-half ago, said an official, adding that they all live in Beed district.
“After the wedding, Jundal’s parents have temporarily locked up their home in Dhanagar Lane, Hatti Khana, and gone somewhere,” the ATS official attached to the Marathwada unit said.
“We can’t disclose the whereabouts of the family. Some of them are anyway facing domestic problems.”
The son of an insurance agent, Jundal was his family’s sole breadwinner after his father Zakiuddin Ansari stopped working because of health issues.
After Jundal fled to Pakistan following the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul, his mother and younger sister started doing tailoring work from home.
The family’s neighbours recall how six years ago the ATS had raided the family’s Hatti Khana house, into which the family moved in from Gavrai village in 2005.
“He hardly used to speak to anyone in our lane. No one in the area ever thought he was a terrorist,” said a neighbour, refusing to be identified.