New Delhi: Abu Jundal, the man with 10 aliases, had nine Facebook accounts and email ids that he allegedly used to hunt for new recruits in Saudi Arabia and in India for the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Jundal, who is in Indian custody and is being interrogated, had reportedly opened one of these Facebook accounts in his real name, Zabiuddin Ansari, which caught the eye of investigating agencies while he was in Saudi Arabia.
All people listed as friends in his accounts on the social networking site are now under surveillance, sources have said.
The hunt for new talent, Jundal's interrogation has reportedly revealed, was for a big terror mission that was planned by the Lashkar for the end of this year. There were hitches in the plan because Jundal's Lashkar boss Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi is behind bars in Pakistan.
Jundal was one of six handlers of the 10 men who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008. He has allegedly confessed that he gave instructions to the terrorists from a control room in Karachi along with other handlers and top Lashkar leaders. He has also allegedly said that there were officers of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in that control room.
Jundal was also interrogated by the Intelligence Bureau Chief Nehchal Sandhu on Tuesday to fill in the gaps in the 26/11 investigation. Mr Sandhu spent 3 hours questioning Jundal where he reportedly gave the exact location of a terror camp in Malir contonment area near Quidabad in Pakistan with the help of Google maps.
After Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists, was caught in the 26/11 operation, the team in Karachi was reportedly quickly disbanded. After Lakhvi was arrested, Jundal has allegedly said that the ISI destroyed the control room. Jundal fled to Saudi Arabia using a fake Pakistani passport.
Things unravelled fast thereafter for Jundal, who is said to be the highest-ranked Indian Lashkar operative. Within a month he caught the eye of US and Indian agencies. The latter worked for months to convince the Saudi authorities to deport Jundal to India. The US agencies helped.
There were obstacles. Sources say Pakistan tried to have Jundal deported to Islamabad instead but the US helped thwart that effort. India, in the meantime, finally convinced Saudi Arabia by using DNA tests to prove Jundal's identity and he was deported.
Yesterday, Jundal's mother, Rehana Begum alleged in Beed, Maharashtra, that no DNA samples had been taken for the Ansari family. She also insisted that her son is innocent.
Jundal, 31, belongs to Beed. He is said to have studied at the Indian Technical Institute. He worked for a while as an insurance agent. Then the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 turned him into a jihadi. He was originally a member of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), an Indian terror group, and was close to its founder, Riyaz Bhatkal. He was recruited by the terror group Students Islamic Movement of India or SIMI. A few years later, he was in Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir when he entered the ranks of the LeT.