Police arrested software engineer Muzammil Shaikh and his brother, Faisal Shaikh, on Thursday and claimed that the latter was the "western India Lashkar-e-Taiba commander". TOI first reported, in the edition dated July 26, that investigators probing the Terror Tuesday conspiracy were zeroing in on the chief LeT operative in western India. Police had then claimed that he was a businessman operating from Mumbai. TOI learnt on Thursday that the 30-year-old Faisal, a resident of Mira Road, had an "export-import" business. But crime branch officials, who picked him up, said that "small business" was only a front for routing hawala money that was channelled into terror causes. "We have come to know that he received hawala-routed money that was used to recruit youth for their visions of 'jihad'," a crime branch unit-II official said on Thursday night. Both Faisal and now-Bangalore based software engineer Muzammil will be produced in court on Friday.
Officials, however, were not "totally sure" about their role in 7/11. "We are interrogating them to ascertain their exact role on July 11," an official said. Faisal visited Pakistan twice in 2004, 2005 for weapons training and stayed there for six months each time. He also met key ISI operative Azam Chima, officials claimed.