Surviving terrorist hails from Pakistani Punjab

Reinforcing India's assertion that the Mumbai attacks had Pakistani links, a
leading Londoan daily has said the lone surviving terrorist arrested during the
strikes belongs to a village in Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab, an "active"
recruiting ground for Lashkar-e-Toiba. Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman interrogated in custody after the terror attacks
that killed 183 people reportedly told Indian security officials that he came from
a place called Faridkot village in Pakistan's Punjab province. His father was
named as Mohammed Amir, married to a woman named Noor. During the past week, Pakistani officials have cast doubt over the authenticity
of the information about the terrorist.
According to a report in The Observer on Sunday, the newspaper, in an
investigation conducted by it, has obtained electoral lists for Faridkot showing
478 registered voters, including one Mohammed Amir, married to Noor Elahi.
Amir's and Noor's national identity card numbers have also been obtained. At the address mentioned in the list, a man identifying himself as Sultan said
he was the father-in-law of Mohammed Amir. A villager, who cannot be named
for his own protection, said the village was "an active recruiting ground for the
banned militant group Lashkar-e-Tayiba. We know that boy caught in Mumbai
is from Faridkot. We knew from the first night of the attack. They brainwash
our youth about jihad, there are people who do it in this village. It is so wrong,"
he was quoted as saying.
According to the villager and other locals, Ajmal has not lived in Faridkot for
about four years but would return to see his family once a year and frequently
talked of "freeing" Kashmir from the Indian rule. The truth about Ajmal's origins are key to the ongoing investigation of where
the attackers came from and will have a profound impact on relations between
India and Pakistan, the paper said. Islamabad has repeatedly said that no proof has been provided to back Indian
assertions that all the terrorists came from Pakistan.
According to The Observer, it has tracked down Ajmal's home--and his
grandfather--and found "conclusive proof" of his identity. The newspaper also
published the photograph of the food cart owned by Ajmal's father and that of
his house. After many people tried to mislead the correspondent of the British daily, one
villager confirmed saying: "You're being given misinformation. We've all known
from the first day of the news of the terrorist attack that it was him, Ajmal Amir.
His mother started crying when she saw his picture on the television." Attempts to meet Ajmal's father, however, were not to be successful. Villagers
eventually said that he and his wife Noor had been mysteriously spirited away
earlier in the week. "Ajmal used to go to Lahore for work as a labourer," continued the villager who
feared being named. "He's been away for may be four years. When he came
back once a year, he would say things like, 'We are going to free Kashmir.'"
Ajmal had little education, according to locals. But it is still unclear whether he
was radicalised in the village or once he had left to work elsewhere. It is said that from the age of 13 he was shuttled between his parents' house
and that of a brother in Lahore. If he did indeed speak fluent English, as
claimed in Indian press reports, he would have had to have learnt that after he
left the village.
But the villager who turned whistle-blower said that local religious clerics were
brainwashing youths in the area and that Lashkar-e-Toiba's founder, Hafiz
Saeed, had visited nearby Depalpur, where there were 'hundreds' of
supporters, the report said. There was an LeT office in Depalpur but that had been hurriedly closed in the
past few days. The Lashkar-e-Toiba newspaper is distributed in Depalpur and
Faridkot. Depalpur lies in the south of Punjab province, an economically backward area
long known for producing 'jihadists'. Shown a picture of Ajmal, the villager confirmed that he was the former
Faridkot resident, who had last visited the village a couple of months ago
during the festival of Eid. Some locals claimed that Faridkot and another poor village nearby called Tara
Singh are a recruitment hotbed for Lashkar-e-Toiba. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, is graffiti that says; "Go for
jihad. For for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad," which is also linked to the LeT. In Depalpur, a banner on the side of the main street asks people to devote
goatskins to Jamaat-ud Dawa, the parent organisation of the LeT. Tara Singh is home to a radical madrassa and there is another hardline
seminary in nearby Depalpur. The nazim or mayor of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem
Haider, said: "There is a religious trend here. Some go for 'jihad', but not too
many."
According to the report, it has been said that when Ajmal was chosen for the
Lashkar basic combat training, he performed so well that he was among a
group of 32 men selected to undergo advanced training at a camp near
Manshera, a course the organisation calls the 'Duara Khaas'. And finally, it seems, he was among an even smaller group selected for specialised commando and navigation training given to the 'fidayeen' unit selected to attack Mumbai. The Pakistani authorities may now attempt to deny that Ajmal's parents live in Faridkot, but, according to some locals, they have been there for some 20 years, the paper said. A crucial piece of evidence the newspaper managed to obtain was an electoral roll for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil
Depalpur, district Okara. The list of 478 registered voters shows a "Mohammed Amir", married to Noor
Elahi, living in Faridkot. Amir's national identity card number is given as
3530121767339, and Noor's is 3530157035058. That appears to be the last piece of the jigsaw. A man called Amir and his
wife, Noor, do live in Faridkot, official records show. They have a son called
Ajmal. Following the visit of the newspaper correspondent to Faridkot, the mayor,
Wattoo, announced via the loudspeaker at the mosque that no one was to
speak to any outsiders. By yesterday, Pakistani intelligence officials had
descended in force on Faridkot. Locals, speaking by telephone, said a Pakistani TV crew and an American journalist had been roughed up and run out of town. It appeared that the
backlash had begun, the paper said.