This could be evidence of an inside job or, as stated, an officer on an undercover mission. Either way, it casts suspicion on the whole story. This sort of information could disappear like similar info about 9/11 did, since we are supposed to be seeing the Pakistanis as the bad guys.

Is suspect a cop or a hood?
Accused is one of ours, India counterinsurgency agency says

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 7th December 2008, 4:20am

SRINAGAR, India -- One of the two Indian men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks was a police officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials said yesterday in demanding his release.

The arrests, announced in the eastern city of Calcutta, were the first since the bloody siege ended.

But what was touted as a rare success for India's beleaguered law enforcement agencies quickly turned sour as police in two Indian regions squared off against one another.

Senior police officers in Indian Kashmir -- at the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan -- demanded the release of Mukhtar Ahmed, saying he was one of their own and had been involved in infiltrating Kashmiri militant groups.

Indian authorities believe the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has links to Kashmir, trained the gunmen and plotted the attacks that left 171 people dead after a three-day rampage through Mumbai that began Nov. 26.

The implications of Ahmed's involvement -- that Indian agents may have been in touch with the militants and perhaps supplied the SIM cards used in the attacks -- added to the growing list of questions over India's ill-trained security forces, which are widely blamed for not thwarting the attacks.

Earlier Saturday, Calcutta police announced the arrests of Ahmed and Tauseef Rahman, who allegedly bought SIM cards by using fake documents, including identification cards of dead people. The cards allow users to switch their cellular service to phones other than their own.

Rahman, of West Bengal state, later sold them to Ahmed, said Rajeev Kumar, a senior Calcutta police officer.

Both men were arrested Friday and charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy, Kumar said. Police were still investigating how the 10 gunmen got the SIM cards.

But the announcement had police in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, fuming.

"We have told Calcutta police that Ahmed is our man and it's now up to them how to facilitate his release," said one senior officer. Other police officials backed him.

The officer said Ahmed was a Special Police Officer, part of a semi-official counterinsurgency network whose members are usually drawn from former militants.