Before 26/11,terrorists handlers made random calls across India to keep their Net account active

The Pak-based Lashkar-e-Toiba handlers of the 26/11 attackers made a series of random phone calls to numbers across India in the days before the terror strike...

The Pak-based Lashkar-e-Toiba handlers of the 26/11 attackers made a series of random phone calls to numbers across India in the days before the terror strike to keep their Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) account active after an email from their US service provider saying that the account,purchased in October,wasnt generating any traffic.

It was this VoIP account,bought using the e-mail id kharak_telco@yahoo.com,that the handlers used to call the 10 attackers on their mobile phones. This is borne out by email exchanges between the handlers and Callphonex,the New Jersey-based service provider,and an investigation by the Mumbai police that checked and cleared each number dialled.

The Lashkar handler,using the alias Kharak Singh,is thought to have got jittery about his VoIP account becoming inactive and so made random calls to increase traffic and ensure the account was not deactivated, said Deven Bharti,Additional Commissioner at Mumbai Polices Crime Branch,and one of the key investigators who co-ordinated with the FBI which detected these calls.

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These calls were completely random,our teams tracked and verified each local number dialled. Absolutely no evidence has been found to suggest that the recipients of these calls acted as local contacts for the terrorists, Bharti said. That the calls were random is evident from some of the numbers they dialled. For instance,they called 66665353,66665363 in Mumbai,which do not exist.

According to call data records,the Lashkar man handling the VoIP account is believed to have tried to test the service and made five calls on November 23. One of them was to a number in Pune which lasted 17 seconds,with the receiver unable to comprehend what the caller was saying. The four other calls were made to out-of-service landline numbers in Mumbai.

As many as 38 random calls were made to numbers across India after the Callphonex mail on November 24,with 18 calls on November 24; 16 on November 25 and four on November 26 until before the 10 attackers landed in Mumbai. The called numbers were in Mumbai,Pune,Nashik,Delhi,Kolkata,Patiala,Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Sunday Express accessed four e-mail exchanges between kharak_telco@yahoo.com and Callphonex. The following is their transcript.

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 At 12:40 p.m. on November 23,2008,hours after the 10 attackers set sail from Karachi,an e-mail was sent from kharak_telco@yahoo.com to sales@callphonex.net with the subject DIDs,referring to Direct Inward Dialling numbers: Dear Sir,Tell me how many payment i got to pay you for DIDs? When they will expire? if they gonna expire plz dont stop them. i will pay 2 days,when you say. Keep them working,thanks. (sic)

 At 2:07 p.m. the same day,a reply is sent from the callphonex e-mail id: Dear Kharak,3x$50 = $150 (3 months DIDs fees). They expire the 27 midnight. Thank you. (sic)

 At 5:29 a.m. on November 24,Callphonex responds to an e-mail sent by Kharak Singh on October 21 with the subject Re: Payment for DID. Investigators believe that callphonex may not have responded to this mail when Singh had sent it or were resending it after his November 23 enquiry: I gave you a reseller access based on the understanding you have traffic around $2000/month (your email date 10/21: i am in India. its 2 years i am selling different accounts). Are you going to give me your business/traffic? Regard. (sic)

 Kharak Singh replies to this mail at 5:50 a.m. on November 24: Dear Sir,I will send traffic by end of this month. Just wanna keep your vsr active when i start. just 7 days. will start from 1st December. today i gonna pay $150 for just a refresh. Thanks. (sic)