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Headley Questions Manner of NIA Recording Statement During Cross Examination

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Headley

Mumbai: Pakistani-American terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley on Saturday alleged that the India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) did not record his statements on various aspects of the 26/11 investigations in his “exact” words.

He said that on the fourth day of his ongoing cross-examination before a Mumbai special court that he had given details on various aspects to the NIA officials.

However, his statements were not read out to him, he did not seek a copy of his statement nor was it provided to him by the NIA, Headley said, raising serious doubts on the NIA statement.

Headley referred to certain statements he made to the NIA on the former terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Muzammil Bhatt and Thane collegian Ishrat Jahan who was killed in an encounter by Gujarat Police along with three other male friends near Ahmedabad in 2004.

Headley made the startling revelation during his cross-examination before Special Judge G.A. Sanap by lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan, who is defending Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, one of the prime accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes.

Speaking via video-conferencing from an unknown place in the US, Headley said that in 2003, LeT cheif Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi had introduced him to Muzammil Bhatt as a top LeT commander who had carried out the Akshardham Temple strike and Ishrat Jahan matter, of which he had prior knowledge through the newspapers.

Headley said that the NIA recorded his statements in words different from what he had told them… for instance, he (Headley) never said that when Lakhvi introduced him to Bhatt, he (Lakhvi) referred to him (Bhatt) sarcarstically that he was top commander whose every major operation had failed.

“I cannot explain why NIA did not did not record my statement in my exact words… They never read out the statement to me after recording… I did not ask for the copy and they never gave me a copy,” Headley said.

When he was shown a copy of his statement to NIA, Headley said that he was seeing it first time, but admitted that he had told NIA about an LeT women’s wing which was headed by the mother of Abu Aiman.

(IANS)

Ishrat Jahan had no terror links, says lawyer Vrinda Grover dismisses Headley’s version

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Vrinda Grover

New Delhi: Vrinda Grover, who is representing Ishrat Jahan’s family in court, on Thursday insisted that Ishrat had no terror links. She said that Headley’s statement is “extremely manipulative” and cannot be “treated as evidence” as per the Indian law. A judicial enquiry, the Gujarat High Court and the CBI all concluded that the encounter was fake.

Headley was tasked with recruiting spies from Indian Army

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Mumbai: Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley on Tuesday described how he was assigned to gather military intelligence in India and recruit spies from the Indian Army.

On the second day of his deposition through video conferencing from a US jail before the Special TADA Court here, Headley said he was tasked with luring spies from the Indian Army to work for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

In his response to questions posed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Headley admitted to working both for the LeT and the ISI.

Headley on Monday revealed that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks were planned over a year in Pakistan.

Detailing the planning for the 26/11 strike, Headley said in November-December 2007 he had attended a meeting in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir along with his LeT contact Sajid Mir and Abu Khafa, in which they asked him to conduct a recce of the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace and other locations in Mumbai.

At the meeting, the LeT leaders gave information about a conference of Indian defence officials and scientists at the luxury hotel opposite Gateway of India which they wanted to hit, Headley told the court of Special Judge G.A. Sanap.

He was specifically asked by his handlers to survey and videograph the second floor of the hotel which he did along with his wife Faiza, selected the landing site for the vessels which would sneak in from the Arabian Sea at Colaba, and discussed everything with Major Iqbal of the Pakistan Army.

Besides Hotel Taj, Headley made videos of Leopold Cafe, Colaba Police Station, the local markets and restaurants in Colaba, the naval and air force stations, the Maharashtra Police headquarters, Hotel Trident-Oberoi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, and the Siddhi Vinayak temple in Prabhadevi.

“Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal were satisfied with the videos and photos of the hotel which I gave them,” Headley said, adding that the plan to target Hotel Taj conference hall was later scrapped for “logistics reasons”.

All the data and locations were stored in a GPS device for future uses, he added.

Headley unravelled before the Special Court how the LeT and Al-Qaeda, which he termed a “terrorist organisation”, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahiddeen and other groups in Pakistan function under the “United Jihad Council” and were working against India.

He said the LeT and ISI have a close nexus with the ISI providing the “financial, military and moral support”, Nikam later told media persons.

Admitting that he served both the LeT and ISI, he said Hafez Sayeed was LeT’s “spiritual leader,” Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was its “operational commander” and worked with the sole aim of spreading terror in India.

Headley said that in 2003, he was present at a LeT meeting when Maulana Masood Azhar made a guest speech about his anti-India activities and his release from India (in December 1999 in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814).

Headley’s deposition will resume again on Wednesday, Nikam told media persons.

(Agencies)

Headley bares two failed attempts before 26/11

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Headley

Mumbai: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) made two unsuccessful attempts before wreaking havoc in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, in a terror attack that killed 166 persons, terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headly told a Special TADA court here on Monday.

In the first attempt to strike Mumbai in September 2008, the terrorist’s boat hit some rocks in the Arabian Sea, resulting in loss of weapons and ammunition, but those on board survived, Headley told TADA Court Judge G.A. Sanap via video-conferencing from a US jail.

The second attempt was made the following month, in October, with the same persons involved as in the first one, but that also failed for unknown reasons, before the third and successful attack was executed on November 26 that year, (in which 166 persons were killed and hundreds more were injured), he said.

Headley also identified in a picture his main contact in the LeT terror group Sajid Mir and LeT founder Hafez Sayeed and said he was inspired by Sayeed’s fiery speeches to join the group in 2002.

Represented by criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani at the TADA court, Headley said he underwent his first training with LeT in 2002 at a camp in Muzaffarabad, which is in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

About the motive behind the crime, he said the terror attack was carried out to assist the Kashmiris fighting against the Indian Army in the border state.

Earlier, Headley, 56, said he was born on June 30, 1960, in the US and shifted to Pakistan later where his name was Daood Sayeed Gilani.

Flanked by three persons at an undisclosed location in the US — his attorney John, US attorney Sarah and a person identified merely as Bob — Headley was administered the oath at 7.30 a.m. and Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam started firing questions at him.

Headley provided details of his passport and spoke of his seven to eight trips to Mumbai and one to New Delhi between 2006-2008 before the 26/11 attacks. The trips included seven via Pakistan and one via the UAE. He also made yet another trip to Mumbai in July 2009, after the terror attack was executed.

To a pointed question by Nikam, who is leading the prosecution case, Headley named one person named Raymaond Sanders as a visa consultant who helped him procure the Indian visa.

Headley said most of the information on his visa application was false — except his birth date and place, mother’s name and nationality and the passport number — so that he would not blow his cover.

“This is the first time that a terrorist is deposing and tendering evidence live in a foreign country. He will divulge the larger aspects of the 26/11 terror conspiracy, the people behind it and related aspects,” Nikam said on the eve of Headley’s trial.

“The evidence coming out today could be very significant,” Jethmalani commented briefly on the proceedings before the special court.

Headley’s ongoing evidence on Monday could help the prosecution nail the alleged co-conspirators in the attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhi, the terrorists’ handlers, the role and involvement of other state and non-state actors, and the role of arrested LeT activist Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, currently in a Mumbai jail.

At the previous hearing on December 10 last year, the special TADA court judge had pardoned Headley and made him an approver in the case, subject to certain conditions.

Headley had already confessed to his role in the offences in the US for which he is serving a 35-year sentence.

The five-hour court proceedings were held here amidst tight security.

(IANS)

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