'No one knows Mumbai better than Dawood'

The investigating agencies probing the Mumbai terror attack are looking into the role played by underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim in the attack. Intelligence Bureau officials have tipped off the police that the don could have provided vital information to the terrorists.

The IB says that the Dawood was well versed with the security situation around the Mumbai coast and also has a lot of details regarding the locations where the attacks were carried out. An investigating officer told rediff.com that they are looking into this angle too and it would be crucial if they could interrogate him.

The IB says that no one knows the terrain of Mumbai better than Dawood and only he could have helped plan an attack with such precision.

The IB also says that Dawood would be the answer to the local module which was supposed to have helped carry out the attacks. The IB believes Dawood has modules, both in Mumbai and Gujarat and for this attack it is unlikely that he may have used the Mumbai module as it would have been an obvious ploy.

Meanwhile investigating agencies have a tough task at hand as they are currently depending entirely on the statements of Ajmal Kasab.

An investigating officer says that Kasab has revealed a lot of information, but they are finding it difficult to corroborate the information which could help bust the entire operation. Kasab is being continuously grilled about the involvement of local modules and also on the role played by Dawood, but he has not said anything about it.

Kasab has denied any involvement of Indian Lashkar operatives and maintains that the entire operation was carried out by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan.

The IB is now relying upon the forensic evidence to track down the entire team involved in the operation. The cell phones and identification cards recovered from the terrorists have been sent to the forensics wing for analysis.

The mobile phone is a key item in the forensic test as it will help track the movement of the terrorists right from the place he started. This technique is known as mobile informatics and one can tell the exact moments of the person using the phone. The identification cards too would play a key role as the forensic expert would be able to identify details about their origin.

The forensics study of the arms and ammunition would clearly tell where they had been sourced from. This will enable the IB to determine whether the arms were brought in from Pakistan or were sourced within India itself.