Mumbai police search for terrorist "sister"
Wednesday, 03 Dec 2008 13:44
Mumbai police search for female accomplice of gunmen who killed 172 people in Indian city last week
Counterterrorism police in Mumbai are searching for a female accomplice of the gunmen who killed 172 people in the Indian city last week.
Azam Amir Qasab – the only of the ten terrorists to survive the attacks – has reportedly revealed to interrogators that he was helped by a burqa-wearing woman he referred to as "sister".
Eyewitnesses claim that Qasab was seen with a woman in Islamic dress moments before the attack on Mumbai's main train station.
One onlooker said that the woman had 'guided' Qasab to his next target, the Cama hospital.
"The man started firing towards the hospital immediately after entering," the witness said.
"Moments before, the woman, in a salwar kameez underneath her burqa, had even tried to enter the hospital by climbing a water pipe. As the man continued firing, the woman, who wasn't armed, knocked on one of the houses. They then asked the family for water."
On Wednesday
Pakistan rejected India's extradition request for 20 suspected militants.
Islamabad claims the men will be convicted on home soil if they are guilty of any offence.
Outgoing US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is also due to arrive in Mumbai in a bid to soothe tensions between India and Pakistan, who have fought three times since partition in 1947.