Police in India said Tuesday they had identified the nine suspected Islamic militants killed during the three-day siege of Mumbai and uncovered new details about them - including their hometowns in Pakistan.
The new information, which included three gruesome photos of maimed faces, appeared to bolster India’s contention that all the attackers were from Pakistan.
The chief police investigator into the attacks also showed photos of eight of the men - some from identity cards, while others were gruesome shots of the dead attackers. The body of the ninth, he said, was too severely burned for showing .
Most of the attackers came from Pakistan’s Punjab province, and all were between the ages of 20 and 28.
India has blamed the Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks that left 171 people dead in India’s financial center , and has demanded that Pakistan take action.
At Tuesday’s briefing, Mumbai chief police investigator Rakesh Maria gave the names and the aliases used by the attackers. He did not say how police had tracked down their hometowns, although they have been interrogating the lone surviving gunman.
Mr. Maria said the leader of the group was Ismail Khan, 25, from Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Pakistan’s North West Frontier province, whom he called a veteran of other Lashkar attacks. He did not provide details.
Khan reportedly led the assault on Mumbai’s busy railway station.
Pakistan has intensified its crackdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba by arresting 20 more people but the country said Tuesday it will not hand any of its citizens over to India.
A day earlier, Pakistan claimed to have captured the suspected ringleader of the attack, Zaki-ur-Rehm an Lakhvi, during a raid in its portion of Kashmir.
The youngest attacker was identified as 20-year-old Shoaib, alias Soheb, who came from Narowal district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He was among those who attacked the Taj Mahal hotel, Mr. Maria said. Two came from the central Pakistani city of Multan.
Some of the photographs were taken from identity documents found on the dead gunmen, while others were pictures taken of the bodies. Some had charred faces, while others were swollen and battered.
Officials at Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry could not be reached immediately for comment, though President Asif Ali Zardari said last week that he doubted the captured gunman was a Pakistani.
The new head of the Jewish center ravaged by the gunmen vowed Tuesday to restore the facility - as did the owners of the iconic Taj Mahal hotel, scene of much of the bloodshed.
Chabad house, the Jewish center, was one of several places captured by suspected Islamic gunmen in the Nov. 26-29 attacks. A commando assault ended the two-day siege of the center, but six people inside the building - all Jewish foreigners - were killed.
“We are staying at the same center and will rebuild it even nicer than it was,” said Rabbi Dov Goldberg, an Israeli who was sent by the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which ran the house.
Among those killed in the attack was American-Israeli Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka.
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