New Delhi: Indian police have arrested a key suspect accused of coordinating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 166 people were killed and more than 300 wounded, the government said on onday.
Abu Hamza, also known as Sayed Zabiuddin, an Indian-born member of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was detained at Delhi international airport on June 21 when he arrived from the Middle East.
Hamza was allegedly one of the handlers based in Karachi, who issued instructions by telephone to the 10 gunmen as they stormed two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a restaurant and a train station in Mumbai.
"The Delhi police has done a magnificent job. I am sure that the investigations will take place and we will wait till the investigations," India's External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters.
Hamza, who has used a string of aliases, had been living in the Middle East in recent years and is now being held in police custody in Delhi, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.
Indian media citing police sources said that Hamza was aged 30 and came from the western state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.
Pakistani national Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only gunman caught alive during the 60-hour assault on Mumbai in November 2008, was handed a death sentence by the Bombay High Court last year.
