Ansari asks for prayer mat, worries about wife and kid in Pak

Mangalore Today / ITV

New Delhi, July 1: It’s been more than a week that 26/11 “handler” Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal has spent in the headquarters of Delhi Police’s Special Cell, but according to the sources he has never once wished to talk to his family in Maharashtra and his sole concern has been the safety of his wife and two-year-old son in Pakistan, reports Indian Express.
Sources said the 30-year-old Ansari, despite his short stature (5 feet, 4 inches), looks stoic because of his long beard and diligently offers namaz five times a day in his high-security cell.

 

 

He doesn’t forget to rub his forehead against the floor — something that devout Muslims do during namaz.

The only request he has made so far has been for a prayer mat and a skull cap, the sources said.

An investigating officer said Ansari has ready-made answers, though he sometimes gets confused by the volley of questions from multiple investigating agencies every day.

Investigators describe him as “forthright” and an “excellent orator” on religion.

“He tells us what he wants us to know. Nothing more than that. He loves to speak about religion and if he doesn’t agree with our views, he would not mince words,” the officer said.

Ansari, married to a shopkeeper’s daughter, was in the business of used cars in Rawalpindi and had an extra income of Rs 15,000 per month from the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the officer said.

He reportedly told the investigators about the “free-flow of money” in LeT.

Though considered a mine of information on Pakistan and LeT, whatever details he has passed on to the investigators so far could be best described as a trickle, the officer said.

“He has angry eyes. If you ask him an uncomfortable question, he just clams up. He was annoyed with the way he was kept in detention in Saudi Arabia. He says they were rude and uncooperative,” the officer said.

“He seems to like the food served to him, which comprises vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian items. He compares his meals here with the food he had to eat during his detention in Saudi Arabia,” the officer said.

Ansari allegedly taught the 26/11 Mumbai attackers, including Ajmal Kasab, “how to speak Hindi with a Hindustani accent” and “how to carry oneself in a five-star hotel”, sources said.

“He told us he was not allowed to ask about the identity of any person he met at training camps in Pakistan. Apart from (LeT leaders) Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, he met some people whose body language resembled that of government officials,” an officer said.