Sat phones may help India trace jihadi trail

They have for long been a big chink in the Indian security apparatus. Not licensed to be sold here, Thuraiya satellite phones have been a favorite with the anti-India terror groups who use them to go about their deadly agenda without the fear of their calls getting intercepted.

However, as Mumbai cops gather evidence to strengthen their already-formidable case against Pakistan-based jehadi group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, a unique characteristic of Thuraiya satellite phone is proving to be of great help.

All the satellite phones have built-in GPS devices which help the Thuraiya `switch' -- master control facility -- in Sharjah to record the movement of a phone as it makes or receives calls.

Sources indicated that investigators, working together with the FBI, have already procured the details from Thuraiya which will help them plot the journey of the Lashkar gang when they set out from Kazghar Creek in Pakistan on their ghastly mission against India.

The Thuraiya switch at Sharjah will also have records of the co-ordinates of Lashkar leaders who used their satellite phones to communicate with their boys heading for Mumbai.

"The evidence will destroy Pakistan's deniability", asserted top intelligence sources, while indicating that Americans are working hard to get the evidence from Sharjah which will help them plot the movement of the gang as well as key Lashkar operatives -- Zakiurr Rahman and Muzammil.

Mohammad Ajmal, the arrested terrorist, has told interrogators that Zakiurr Rahman and Muzammil had instructed them to throw both the satellite phone and the GPS device into the sea after reaching Mumbai. While the jehadis scrupulously carried out their brief to kill innocents and cause mayhem, they forgot to jettison the two devices -- a lapse which threatens to spoil the celebrations over the Mumbai strikes in the Muridike headquarters of Lashkar and which has created complications for Pakistan.