'Location in GPS matched route indicated in terrorist's diary'

The first witness against the two Indian accused — Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Shaikh — in the 26/11 case deposed in court on Thursday.

Nooruddin Shaikh, a friend of Ansari said he had met Ansari at Kathmandu in January 2008 where he saw him hand over a set of maps to Sabauddin. These maps were allegedly used by the Pakistani attackers for the 26/11 terror attack.

Shaikh said Sabauddin had asked Ansari if he had completed the job (Zaki-ur-Rehman) Lakhvi assigned to him.  In response, Ansari handed over around 8-10 sheets of paper. “The papers accidentally fell on the floor. I saw that the papers had some maps drawn on them,” said Shaikh.

Shaikh said the map shown in court is similar to the one he saw in Nepal. He also identified Sabauddin and Ansari in court.

Lakhvi, a wanted Pakistani accused is named as a key conspirator in the case.
On the other hand, a nautical expert deposed in court on Thursday that data collected from the GPS device allegedly used by Pakistani terrorists suggests that the attackers had plotted a return route from Mumbai to Karachi.

Sandeep Shivane who teaches at the Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies and Research in Mumbai, said the return route to Karachi was shorter than the incoming route. Shivane plotted the waypoints retrieved by the FBI from the GPS devices onto a physical map for the police.

The GPS devices, seized from MV Kuber and the dinghy, also had plottings for the route from Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade to Hotel Taj near Cafe Leopold at Colaba Causeway.