NEW DELHI, Feb 24: Police will file the first formal charges over last year’s Mumbai attacks on Wednesday, a government lawyer said, accusing a man identified as the only surviving gunman and several others of waging war against India.

Those to be charged included some accused of planning last November’s attacks in India’s financial hub, police and officials said on Tuesday.

Government lawyer Ujjal Nikam said the accused included two Indians who were members of a militant group who had been charged with scouting Mumbai landmarks before the attack. “Kasab and others have been charged with waging war against the state and conspiracy,” Nikam said.

Rakesh Maria, the chief Indian investigator in the attack, said the charge sheet would be a “mammoth” document running into thousands of pages.

Other officials said the charge sheet would also mention the names of nine gunmen who were killed by Indian security forces during the long siege on several Mumbai landmarks.—Reuters

Meanwhile, militants behind the attacks used cell phones that were activated in the United States and paid for with funds sent from Italy, an Italian newspaper reported.

Corriere della Sera daily said India sent the intelligence information to Italy and other countries so anti-terrorism investigators could attempt to expose any ties to the network behind the November assault.

Corriere said Italian authorities were investigating a wire transfer sent to the United States from the northern Italian city of Brescia by a Pakistani-born suspect.

The suspect, named as Javaid Iqbal, sent the funds via Western Union to pay for five cell phones with Austrian country codes — three of which were used by the attackers, Corriere said.—Reuters