New York: The 26/11 attacks were plotted by LeT and some officers of Pakistans’ ISI as a commando-style assault in India that would “dwarf” previous operations after their alliance came under strain when the terror group pushed for Western targets, a report said on Monday.
A detailed investigative report by the New York Times, ProPublica and the PBS series Frontline titled “In 2008 Mumbai Killings, Piles of Spy Data, but an Uncompleted Puzzle”, said that LeT, whose initial focus was India and Kashmir, later became increasingly interested in the West.
The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s alliance with the ISI, its “powerful patron”, came “under strain as some of the militants pushed for a Qaeda-sty-le war on the West,” the report said.
“As a result, some ISI officers and terror chi-efs decided that a spectacular strike was needed to restore Lashkar’s cohesion and burnish its image,” the report said, citing interviews and court files.
The report also reve-aled that LeT’s technology chief had posed as Kharak Singh, a Mumbai based businessman, while negotiating to buy VoIP service from an American company that was later used by the LeT handlers to com-municate with 26/11 attackers.
