Assigned by ISI to recruit spy in Indian Army: Headley

Nikam said that Headley had revealed that the LeT was planning to attack the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai a year before the November 2008 terror attack.

“His evidence may unfold many things behind the terrorist attack”.

Headley had also revealed that two attempts had been made to launch terror attacks on India’s financial and commercial capital just weeks before the 26/11 incident.

Admitting to his links with both the LeT and the ISI, Headley described Hafiz Saeed as LeT’s “spiritual leader”, while Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was its “operational commander” and both worked with the sole aim of unleashing terror in India.

David Headley, who was sentenced in 2013 by a Chicago court to 35 years in a United States prison for his role in the atrocity, said Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants had been behind the fatal assaults. Headley said his assessment was that ISI and LeT were coordinating with each other.

The Indian security establishment has expressed satisfaction that David Coleman Headley did not retract during the deposition on Monday the disclosures he had made in a confession before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2010. “However, the meeting of the scientists was cancelled”, he said, adding that prior to November 2007, the place was not decided where terror attacks would be conducted in India.

Headley clarified in the court that he came to Mumbai, seven times before the 26/11 attacks, mostly from Pakistan and once from the UAE.

Official sources in India’s Home Ministry told bdnews24.com that Headley’s testimonies would certainly help India in preparing another fresh dossier to nail 26/11 masterminds. While deposing Headley also admitted that he had a general idea on 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

He said that while applying for the Indian visa, he cooked up a story that he was an immigration consultant and furnished incorrect information to protect his cover.

The court had on December 10, 2015, agreed to make Headley an approver in the case granting him a pardon in exchange for his testimony.

He also confessed that he had joined LeT after being influenced by Saeed.

“This is for the first time in the Indian legal history that a foreign terrorist will appear before an Indian court and testify”. Major Ali thought that he will be beneficial for gathering intelligence from India, Headley says.

Continuing his deposition for the second consecutive day, Headley said that he was asked by the ISI to recruit Indian army men to spy for them.

Son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, Headley changed his birth name Daood Sayed Gilani at the behest of LeT to avoid suspicion for his five spying missions in Mumbai to scout targets for the attacks, which killed 168 people.