'Mastermind' of Mumbai attacks held in Kashmir

ONE of the suspected masterminds behind the Mumbai terror attacks has been arrested by troops in Pakistan, it emerged today.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was held with at least five other people in a raid on the alleged base of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistani Kashmir yesterday.

Indian officials say Lakhvi gave orders by telephone to the 10 militants who killed at least 171 people in the Indian financial capital.

The raided camp near regional capital Muzaffarabad was used by extremist groups and run by Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, LeT's parent organisation. Witnesses heard several explosions and saw a helicopter and dozens of soldiers briefly exchange fire with militants inside the camp before the arrests were made.

A senior intelligence official confirmed the arrests and said several injured people are being treated and questioned at a military hospital.

The camp was used until 2004 by Let to train recruits to fight Indian rule in its section of the Kashmir. More recently, it was used by Jamaat-ud-Dawa for education and charity work.

The only surviving Mumbai terrorist, Azam Amir Qasab, was a member of LeT and trained at one of their camps. Let, a jihadist militia, was formed in the Eighties to be a guerrilla army against Hindus in Kashmir.