Thanks to the interception of the terror commands from Pakistan to the gunmen, one of the first crucial pieces of information that the CTC passed on to the Mumbai police and then the NSG was this: ‘There are ten Lashkar fidayeen; get the ten bodies and the terrorists’ personal weapons, ten AK-47s.’ The 26/11 attacks continued for fifty-nine hours and were reckoned to be over when the ten gunmen and an equal number of AK-47s were accounted for.

After 26/11, Abu-Lakhvi renewed his calls to the CTC’s five operatives to meet him in Pakistan for ‘stock-taking’ and ‘consultations’. Despite his persistent summons, the five agents had cited an array of excuses over the years for not being able to meet him and his top aides in Pakistan for a debriefing on why LeT top operations had failed one after another. As per the protocol laid down by the LeT itself, the operatives were to stay in touch on their own initiative with their Pakistani handlers, indirectly, via phone numbers located in Dubai. The Pakistani handlers could not get in touch with the five if the latter chose to snap the link.

And so the five did not return to meet Abu-Lakhvi or any of their other Lashkar handlers. Atharv and Rohit both told Abu-Lakhvi that they had pending work and would come there on its completion. The CTC learned from its interceptions of conversations of Lashkar operatives located in Pakistan, Nepal and India that Abu-Lakhvi and his associates were frantically looking for the CTC operatives for several years for having given them ‘deadly blows’. Abu-Lakhvi beefed up the LeT’s internal mechanisms to safeguard against the recruitment of ‘enemies’.

Atharv and the other four CTC operatives broke their contacts with the LeT subsequently and decided to disappear for a while – until a new assignment, a new project with the CTC, beckoned.

India’s war on terror continues, within its borders and beyond. The CTC is spearheading the war. Indians like Shekhar, Somaiya, Sawant, Imran Hussein, Atharv, Rohit, Anant, Sahil and Nirav are the spear’s tip.

About the Authors

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Divya Prakash Sinha is a 1979-batch IPS officer who joined the Intelligence Bureau in 1987 and spent around twenty-eight years of his career there looking after counter-terrorist and security operations. He is credited with neutralizing a large number of terror modules in the country. After rising to the level of Special Director in the IB, he also served as Secretary (Security) in the Cabinet Secretariat, from where he superannuated in 2015. He is a recipient of the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Services and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services.

After superannuation, he was selected for the post of Central Information Commissioner by a high-level panel headed by India’s Prime Minister.

Sinha is an honours graduate in physics from Patna University. As an IPS officer, he began his career in Tripura, holding various positions, including of a district SP and SP, CID.