Word: qasab
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Killing for Paradise The organizers at Muridke, however, had different plans for Qasab. After his initial training in the philosophy of jihad, he was sent to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where he finally got the opportunity to handle a gun. "We were taken in a vehicle to a place called Mansera, [where] we were given training of all weapons for 21 days," Qasab says in his confession. In the subsequent four months of training, Qasab learned to fire AK-47s, studied the Indian security agencies and was trained in the "handling of hand grenade, rocket launchers and mortars, Uzi gun, pistol...
...While Qasab never mentions that he was part of such a unit, his preparation suggests that he had been chosen to learn fedayeen tactics, which are increasingly common outside Kashmir. For his final round of advanced training, Qasab moved to another camp near Muzaffarabad, also in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where he says he met a man named Zaki-ur-Rehman "Chacha" (Uncle), who selected him as one of a team of 16 destined for a confidential operation. Qasab may have been referring to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a top LeT commander who was arrested by Pakistani security forces...
Missed Signals Of the 16 selected for the operation, says Qasab, three ran away. The rest returned to Muridke, where for one month they were given swimming lessons and "acquainted with the environment experienced by a fisherman on a sea." (The fishpond on the Muridke campus, the size and shape of two Olympic-size pools placed at a right angle to each other, doubles as a swimming pool, a student told TIME.) While he was in Muridke, Qasab and his teammates attended lectures on the Indian intelligence agencies and watched videos highlighting atrocities committed against Muslims in India...
...Mumbai attack was nominally conducted for the Kashmir struggle, but India has avoided linking the Mumbai attacks to Kashmir, and Qasab's confession does not mention it. Political leaders in Kashmir have deplored the barbarity of the attacks while acknowledging that Mumbai has drawn attention to their cause. For Qasab, the political implications of his mission were probably far from his mind as he went through the final stages of preparation. The commandos were shown images of Mumbai on Google Earth and told how to disembark from their boats. Qasab and his partner, Khan, were shown video footage of their...
...Qasab's final weeks of preparation were spent in a house near Karachi. It is possible that the attack had been compromised. In late September, India's Intelligence Bureau warned specifically about the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, and in mid-October, U.S. intelligence agencies warned that Mumbai was a target of an attack by sea. The hotel tightened its security and received extra protection from the Mumbai police. But nothing happened, and the security measures were relaxed in mid-November...