Report: Mumbai mastermind arrested

 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Pakistani authorities raided a Kashmir military camp and arrested the suspected mastermind of last month's Mumbai terrorist attacks, sources say.

An unnamed Pakistani military official told The Times of London Monday that authorities arrested Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, an activist with the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group. Indian officials accused him of masterminding the Mumbai attacks, which killed 164 people.

Witnesses said Pakistan authorities launched a raid on the LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, late Sunday, their first attempt to respond to mounting pressure from India and the United States to take action against LeT and its affiliates.

The camp is owned by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity formed after the LeT was banned from Pakistani politics following its 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, CNN reported. Jamaat says it uses the site as an office for relief work in an area hit by a 2005 earthquake. The group did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the U.S. broadcaster said.

The LeT has denied involvement in the Mumbai carnage but U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN Sunday "there's no doubt" the attacks were planned inside Pakistan.