ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: A seven-member team of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is likely to visit Pakistan next week to grill the six people accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

“The FBI team will question the six Mumbai accused who are being held in Pakistan and also meet Pakistani investigators working on the case to discuss their findings so far,” a well-placed source told Dawn.

The government, the source said, agreed to interrogation of the accused by the FBI after international pressure.

“There was exchange of information taking place between FBI and Pakistani investigators, but so far the government has been reluctant to allow direct access of the foreign sleuths to the accused,” the source said.

The US team is interested in questioning the suspects on the basis of the preliminary findings shared by Islamabad with Delhi and Washington. “The main objectives before the team are to establish the veracity of Pakistani findings and get further information from the accused.”

The six men to be interrogated by the FBI team are: masterminds Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, main facilitator Hamad Amin Sadiq, Abu Alqama alias Mazhar Iqbal, Javed Iqbal and an unidentified person.

The authorities had accused eight people of being behind the attacks, but were able to arrest only six of them.

It is believed that the information extracted from the detainees would then be passed on by US officials to Indian investigators.

Indian investigation agencies have been cooperating with the FBI under a joint anti-terror mechanism and the US investigation agency, sources say, helped the Indians put together the dossier handed over to Pakistan.

India also provided FBI access to Amir Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman. Sleuths of the Federal Bureau of Investigation grilled him for nine hours.

India got through FBI, among other clues, details of calls made by the attackers via the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a satellite phone and documents relating to the global positioning system allegedly used by the assailants while sailing from Karachi.

The forensic examination of the bullets used by them in Mumbai was also a part of the evidence collected from FBI by Mumbai police.

Along with this cooperation between the US and India, a mechanism for the exchange of information between the US and Pakistan also kept working.

The dossier provided by India to Pakistan was routed through the US.

In one instance, the GPS coordinates given in the dossier were used to conduct raids in Karachi on two houses. In one of the raids a dinghy used for training the gunmen was found.

Although it is not officially acknowledged, background interviews suggest that the Indians and the Americans so far feel ‘pleased’ with the action taken by Pakistan against elements accused of involvement in the Mumbai tragedy.