By IANS,
Islamabad : A five-member FBI team has visited Faridkot, the ancestral hometown Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai terror attacks, a media report Thursday said.
FBI director for South Asia William Robert headed the team.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko, when contacted by the daily Dawn in Washington to comment on the team’s visit, said: “The FBI continues to assist Indian authorities with their investigation. We will work with the Indian authorities and our partners to follow leads wherever they may take us.”
Asked if an FBI team had visited Faridkot, Kolko replied: “We are unable to provide details of what is being done. We refer you to Indian authorities or the US State Department for any additional information.”
Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, also did not confirm or deny the visit.
“We do not comment on ongoing investigations,” he said, adding: “We would refer you to US officials for information on FBI-led investigations.”
“Other sources, however, claimed that the FBI team, which is visiting Pakistan to help with the investigation of the Mumbai terror attacks, has determined that Pakistan has no links to the attackers,” Dawn said on its website.
“The FBI also has determined that Ajmal Kasab, the gunman in Indian custody, has no links to any Pakistani government agency or individual,” it quoted the sources as saying.
“It was, however, not clear if the FBI team also has rejected the Indian claim that Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistan national, as reported by a private Pakistani television channel,” Dawn added.
The FBI team had visited India before coming to Pakistan. As in Pakistan, it issued no statement after completing the India visit.
During its stay in Mumbai, the FBI team questioned Kasab for more than nine hours. Indian media reports said that the FBI sleuths sought minute details about Kasab’s native village and about his alleged links to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group that India says staged the Nov 26-29 Mumbai mayhem that killed over 170 people, including 26 foreigners.