Abu Jundal: Pakistan says trying to collect details

Close on the heels of India announcing the arrest of a key handler of terrorists who struck Mumbai in 2008, Pakistan has said that it was trying to collect details from India on the matter.

30-year-old Abul Jundal alias Syed Zabiuddin, who is said to have been issuing directions from a 'control room' in Pakistan to 10 terrorists who went on a rampage in Mumbai killing 166 people, was detained in Saudi Arabia and sent to India five days ago.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it was collecting details about Zabiuddin's arrest.

"We are in touch with our mission in New Delhi and trying to figure out the situation," Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune on Tuesday.

Pakistani security analysts said Saudi Arabia's reported role in the handing over of Zabiuddin reflected pragmatism on Riyadh's part.

"It looks to be based on real politicking wherein Saudi authorities preferred pragmatism over anything else," said Imtiaz Gul, who heads an Islamabad-based think tank.

Lt Gen (retired) Talat Masood agreed with Gul. "Public perception is different but it might have not been a difficult decision for Saudi leaders," he said.

Meanwhile, some LeT activists, who once trained in the terror group's camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and northern parts of the country, said that Zabiuddin's name sounded familiar to them, the daily said without giving further details.

Separately, Jamaat-ud-Dawah, declared a front for the LeT by the UN Security Council, sought to distance itself from Zabiuddin.

"Indians say he belongs to the LeT... we don't recognize the group. We are Jamaat-ud-Dawah. We are a charity involved in social welfare and not terrorists," JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid was quoted as saying by the Tribune.