ISI plan against India 'hijacked' by ex-Major, Kashmiri: Book

Islamabad, Jun 2 (PTI) ISI had chalked out a "low-profile
routine proxy operation" in India through LeT but the plan was
"hijacked" and turned into Mumbai attacks by an ex-Pakistan
army major and terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri's men with al-Qaeda's
blessings, according to a book written by slain journalist
Syed Saleem Shahzad.
Excerpts from the book 'Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban--
beyond bin Laden and 9/11', published in the Dawn, give
Shahzad's interpretations of how the 2008 Mumbai attacks,
which claimed 166 lives, unfurled.
"With Ilyas Kashmiri's immense expertise on Indian
operations, he stunned the al-Qaeda leaders with the
suggestion that expanding the war theatre was the only way to
overcome the present impasse.
"He presented the suggestion of conducting such a massive
operation in India as (it) would bring India and Pakistan to
war and with that all proposed operations against al-Qaeda
would be brought to a grinding halt. Al-Qaeda excitedly
approved the attack-India proposal," the 40-year-old author,
whose murder has sent shockwaves among the media and rights
groups, said in the book released on May 20.
He said Kashmiri then handed over the plan to "a very
able former army major Haroon Ashik", who was also an ex-LeT
commander and was still very close to the LeT's Zakiur Rahman
Lakhvi and Abu Hamza.
"Haroon knew about a plan by Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) that had been in the pipelines for several
months with the official policy to drop it as it was to have
been a low-profile routine proxy operation in India through
LeT.
"The former army major, with the help of Ilyas Kashmiri's
men in India, hijacked the ISI plan and turned it into the
devastating attacks that shook Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and
brought Pakistan and India to the brink of a war," according
to the book.