Government to probe book's claims on 26/11

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde Monday said the claims of two British journalists that a super-agent code-named "Honey Bee" in the Indian establishment aided Pakistan's ISI in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes would be probed.

"It (the claim in the book) has not come to (our) notice. However, we will inquire into it," Shinde said, in response to a question about the book, "The Siege: The Attack on the Taj" by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark.

The authors of the book claim that the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence used "a super-agent" based in New Delhi and code-named "Honey Bee" to help facilitate the terrorist strike on Mumbai in November 2008.

When Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley suggested to his Pakistani contacts that Mumbai could be attacked, a certain Major Iqbal of the Pakistan Army reportedly told him that if he was to scout that city, he would need to know how to record his findings.

The book says that Major Iqbal (who is not clearly identified, but appears according to the description to have been a senior operative of the ISI) gave him (Headley) what he described as "classified Indian files" that he said had been obtained from within the Indian police and army, which "revealed their training and limitations".

"The major boasted that they had a super-agent at work in New Delhi who was known as 'Honey Bee'. The major revealed that while he (Major Iqbal) would guide Headley, the Mumbai operation was to be run by Lashkar (Lashkar-e-Toiba)," the book says.

It was also "Honey Bee" who is said to have come up with the idea of a potential landing area in Badhwar Park, a fishing colony in south Mumbai, where Lashkar operatives could reach by sea to enter the Indian city.

Eventually, Nov 26-29, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists attacked prominent targets in Mumbai, unfolding a bloody drama that left 166 Indians and foreigners dead and almost sparking a war between the two countries.