12 Mumbai landmarks were LeT targets: ATS

“Among the places where Fahim conducted recces are Churchgate and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway stations, Haj House, Haji Ali dargah, the Mumbai Police headquarters, the Maharashtra Police headquarters, Gateway of India and the BSE building,” said Karkare.

Fahim has told interrogators that he was the Lashkar’s Mumbai link, and was asked to arrange for accommodation in the city for the fidayeen so that they could plan and launch their attacks.

Fahim, who holds a Pakistani passport showing him as a resident of Rawalpindi, is actually a resident of the Motilal Nagar slums in Goregaon (West).

“He was born and brought up in Mumbai, and used to do odd jobs in the city. He went to Dubai, and in 2005 joined the LeT. He visited Pakistan, where he attended a training camp near Muzaffarabad. Fahim was in touch with a handler in Nepal, who is among the eight arrested by the UP STF,” said Karkare.

According to the UP STF, Fahim stayed at Sunlight Guest House in the Grant Road area from November 28 to December 10, after which he took a room on rent at Batawalli Chawl, Falkland Road in the same area.

Fahim got a driver’s licence using the alias Samir Shaikh, the UP STF said.

When The Sunday Express visited the driving school, its records showed that three people with the name Samir Shaikh had registered with them since November last year. The three addresses provided were of Bandra, Dongri and Islampura.

“This is the second time that we are caught up in something like this. Four or five years ago, the Mumbai Police had come to our driving school to get details of someone named Rafique, who had used the alias Mirza to get a licence through us. He hailed from UP, and was arrested in Delhi. The Mumbai Police told us that he was an ISI agent,” said Ismail Kapadia, the proprietor of the driving school.