Chicago: Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives David
Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, friends from a military
school in Pakistan and facing charges of conspiring 26/11
Mumbai terror attacks, have not been in contact with each
other or met despite being in the same federal lock-up.
"They are not in contact with each other at the
Metropolitan Correctional Centre. They are not meeting or even
eating in the same area," sources said.
Rana has pleaded not guilty to helping his old friend
Headley in plotting the terror attacks in Mumbai that claimed
166 lives. He also entered the not guilty plea to charges of
providing material support in the Denmark terror plot and to
the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Rana's friendship with Headley dates back to the
Pakistani military school known as Cadet College Hasan Abdal,
where both were students.
According to government affidavits, Rana and Headley
maintained e-mail contact with other former students,
including officers in Pakistan's military. They belonged to a
group of the school's graduates who referred to themselves as
the "abdalians" in Internet postings.
Prosecutors allege that Rana helped Headley by
allowing him to use his immigration company as a cover for
surveillance trips to India and Denmark.
After the January 14 indictment that charged Rana and
Headley with plotting the Mumbai and Denmark terror plots, it
was generally thought that the two would be brought in court
together for their arraignments.
However, Rana and Headley are appearing separately to
respond to the charges against them. While Pakistani-Canadian
Rana was arraigned on Monday, Headley would appear in court
before Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys on January 27.
Sources say with Headley "cooperating in the
investigation", authorities may not want to bring them
together at court hearings or even at the MCC.
Rana's lawyer Patrick Blegen said while he has "known"
Headley's attorney John Theis for a long time, "there is not
much they can tell me and not much I can tell them".
Rana is held on a floor on the MCC, in downtown here,
that is designated for people who have committed some offence
within the institution.
"He is under very strict rules and requirements. It is
a very difficult situation and we are hoping that he can
concentrate on assisting us in fighting the case since the MCC
is not a great place to be," Blegen told reporters after the
arraignment hearing at the US District Court, Northern
District of Illinois.
Rana cannot move within the centre without "a
three-man hold" - he is escorted by three correctional
officers wherever he goes.
"He is in a very small room all by himself for almost
24 hours a day. It is much more difficult to visit him than a
typical inmate of the MCC," Blegen said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 13:22