After years of denial, Pakistan has conceded what India has asserted all along: the 26/11 Mumbai carnage was planned, financed and launched from its soil.
The admission, however, is buried in the fine print of the Federal Investigation Agency’s 2026 ‘Red Book of Most Wanted High-Profile Terrorists’. It lists 19 Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives for their role in the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people.
The confession comes with a calculated cover-up. The Red Book comfortably omits the names of 26/11 mastermind and globally designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed, as well as plotter Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi – exposing Islamabad’s selective justice.
Indian security agencies have trashed the listing as a cosmetic charade timed for the FATF plenary in Paris next month. All 19 men, officials say, continue to live freely in Pakistan despite the FIA possessing their photographs, home addresses and family details. “Hafiz Sayed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi are important assets of Pak spy Agency ISI and continue to enjoy security cover provided by them,” said a senior security force officer.
The list itself betrays tokenism. Seventeen operatives are shown with photos and LeT affiliation, while two have been quietly diluted, stripped of pictures and terror links that were present in the 2021 edition.
Among those named are the 11 sea-route facilitators who arranged the boats, Al-Hussaini and Al-Fauz, to ferry the 10 suicide squad members of Lashkar to Mumbai. They include Muhammad Amjad Khan of Multan, who bought Al-Fauz along with engines and life jackets, Shahid Gafoor of Bahawalpur, who captained both vessels, and nine crew members from Sahiwal, Lahore, Hafizabad, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Karachi, Multan, Lodhran and Rahim Yar Khan.
Also listed are six financiers who financed the brutal attack. They include Muhammad Iftikhar Ali of Faisalabad, who paid Rs 70,000 for the VoIP line used by the attackers to speak to handlers in Karachi, and Ahmed Saeed of Battagram, who pumped in Rs 21 lakh.
The two whitewashed entries, Muhammad Khan of Turbat and Abdul Rehman of Bahawalnagar, were earlier documented as members of LeT. In the 2026 version, their faces and affiliations have vanished.
The FIA claims the accused have been on the run for 18 years, a plea Indian officials call laughable for an agency that tracks down political dissidents within hours.
“India has already handed over detailed dossiers pinpointing their whereabouts. By claiming ignorance, Pakistan is merely trying to shrug off its responsibility and mislead the FATF and the international community,” said SP Vaid, former DGP of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Red Book, now expanded to 1,804 names from 1,330 in 2021, was released alongside an enhanced Rs 70 lakh bounty on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, also declared a “fugitive.”
