BBC Newsnight reporter Richard Watson has had exclusive access to India's investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks. This is the Crime Branch at Mumbai police headquarters where 54 detectives are investigating the background to the November attacks.
Detectives have assembled 11,000 pages of evidence against the only surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab. A total of 35 named individuals, said to be from the Pakistan-based extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), have been accused of planning of the attacks.
The investigation team has been led by Mumbai Police Additional Commissioner Deven Bharti. Commissioner Bharti told Newsnight that the evidence strongly led to a plot hatched in, and launched from, Pakistan.
Constable Arun Jadhav was caught up in the attacks when gunmen fired on his police car, killing three of the most senior counter-terrorism officers in Mumbai, then hijacked it. He survived by playing dead in the back as the gunmen drove to new targets.
Newsnight retraced the steps taken by the terrorists in locations across Mumbai.
The terrorists came by sea, reaching shore in an inflatable dinghy powered by an outboard motor. Questions have been asked about the Coastguard Service’s ability to control Mumbai’s lengthy coastline.
Mumbai police has suffered severe criticism for the slowness of their response on the night of the attacks. They were heavily outgunned by the terrorists. Now a new Quick Reaction Team is being formed.
Drawn from the regular police, the Quick Reaction Team are being trained in the use and maintenance of automatic weapons in a secret location on the outskirts of Mumbai.
The new police team are being trained by military commandos and counter-terrorism specialists. As well as weapons training, they also learn hand-to-hand combat, and about tactics and communications.
New recruits will be placed in police stations across Mumbai. They will be Mumbai’s first line of defence against terrorism until a new state-wide commando force is in place later this year.
Vaishalli Omble's father Tukarem Omble tackled surviving gunman Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab at a police checkpoint. Armed only with a police stick, he seized Kasab’s AK47. Vaishalli says her family are very proud of his actions.
Many people in Mumbai, especially the poor, say they cannot understand why the city is spending so much time and money on the trial of Ajmal Qasab given that he was clearly seen in CCTV images firing his AK47 into crowds.
But this is a rare chance for the Indian authorities to press their case that Pakistan-based LeT militants are behind the attacks. Newsnight's report, revealing new audio and CCTV of how the attacks unfolded, is on BBC Two 10.30pm on Monday 29 June 2009.
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