American says he visited Mumbai 7 times before 2008 attack

Headley, according to his deposition before the court, changed his name from Syed Daood Salim Gilani to David Coleman Headley in Philadelphia and also obtained a new passport in the new name, as instructed by Siraj Mir.

Among conditions imposed to grant the pardon, the court had said that Headley would have to disclose the full and true facts within his knowledge, that led to the attacks.

But the plan was dropped because of logistical reasons, like difficulty in smuggling in weapons and personal and failure to know the schedule of the meet, he said.

Headley, 55, said his LeT handler had asked him to reconnoiter the Taj so that they could plan an attack.

Role in LeT: Mir was made responsible for training the growing number of western jihadists knocking on the Lashkar’s doors.

He told the court that Lashkar had planned to attack the Indian defence scientists at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai.

“The task of conducting recce of Taj Hotel in Mumbai was assigned to me”. He said he met them in 2002.

Headley joined LeT and took his first “course” with them in 2002 at Muzaffarabad. Once Pakistan Government heard about this, they chose to facilitate Hafiz Saeed for his teachings and inspirational leadership.

He spoke of how he got motivated after listening to Hafiz Saeed’s speech. “Hafiz Saeed “saab” is the head of Lashkar”. “In Daura-e- Khas, which is a more advanced training, he was taught to handle weapons, arms, explosives and ammunition”, the LeT operative said.

He said: “In August 2004 I interacted with Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi”.

Indian prosecutor claims David Headley told court Lashkar-e-Taiba had been financially, morally and militarily supported by Pakistan’s spy agency.

He said he knew Major Iqbal of ISI and had met him in Lahore after one Major Ali (also from ISI) introduced him to the former. He revealed a lot about Major Iqbal and Major Ali, both of whom were in ISI.

“I did ask him on what grounds he was saying that”. 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.

Headley said that although he wanted go to Kashmir and fight Indian troops, he was told that he was too old for that. Headley was born in the United States on June 30, 1960, and soon after his birth his family shifted to Pakistan where he attended Karachi Republic School (an Army school) and did two years of college at Hassan Abdal Cadre College in Punjab before shifting back to U.S. at the age of 18.

India has long blamed the LeT for coordinated attacks on November 26, 2008 when at least 10 gunmen rampaged through luxury hotels, the main railway station, a Jewish centre and other sites in the country’s financial capital as they killed 166 people and wounded at least 308.

He also told the court that there were two unsuccessful attempts to carry out terror attacks before the 26/11 attacks.

In his first deposition on Monday, Headley had said that Pakistani terrorists attempted to attack Mumbai twice before the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai. He visited India seven times before the attacks, recording hours of video of the city for his handlers in Pakistan. Tahawwur Rana was a Chicago resident who owned First World Immigration Services and a long-time Headley associate.

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.

He also revealed that his visa application contained fake information.