Official: Interpol issues notices of arrest warrants for 5 Pakistanis in Mumbai attacks

Warrants issued for 5 Pakistanis in Mumbai attacks

NEW DELHI — Interpol notified its members on Thursday that India has issued arrest warrants for five Pakistani citizens, including two army officers, for alleged involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, an official said.

India asked Interpol to issue the so-called “red corner notices” for the five Pakistanis, said R.K. Gaur, a spokesman for India’s Central Bureau of Investigation.

The notices follow a probe by India’s National Investigation Agency into the role of American David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty in the United States in March to participating in the planning of the attacks, which killed 166 people.

The five Pakistanis wanted by India are Maj. Sameer Ali, Maj. Iqbal, Illyas Kashmiri, Abdur Rehman Hashim and Sajid Majid, Gaur said.

Iqbal was Headley’s handler who arranged funds and training for him, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. It said Ali was also named by Headley.

Arrest warrants for the five were issued by a New Delhi court in July following a request by the National Investigation Agency.

Pakistani officials could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

In July, Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks. Pillai said the information, which Pakistan has denied, came from Headley’s interrogation.

A court in Mumbai in May convicted and sentenced to death Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman from the attacks. He has appealed his death sentence in the Mumbai High Court.

Kasab was one of 10 Pakistanis who attacked two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station in India’s financial capital in November 2008.