Mumbai: American-born terror suspect David
Headley had not only actively played a role in conducting
reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai but was also present in a
control unit in Pakistan along with the masterminds of the
attacks to guide 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists to carry out
strikes in the megapolis.
Sources privy to the investigations of the terror
suspect`s trail in India said 48-year-old Headley was very
much present in the room from where the 10 LeT terrorists were
being guided to various locations during the 26/11 attacks.
The investigators re-visited the intercepts and found
that there were specific instructions being given to
terrorists about entry and exit including that they had taken
more time before reaching their final targets which included
Taj Mahal hotel, Oberoi and Trident towers and Nariman House.
India has asked for a voice sample of Headley from the
FBI to match with a voice which was unidentified so far for
the security agencies. This voice was giving information on
exact surroundings of the targets attacked by LeT
militants. However, there was no firm response from the FBI on
providing the same to the Indian investigators, the sources
said.
The sources claimed that there were frequent promptings
done by Headley to LeT mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi from a room in Pakistan. Lakhvi, against whom Interpol
has issued a Red Corner Notice at the request of India, was in
turn touch with the terrorists attacking Mumbai.
Headley, who has visited India nine times -– eight times
before 26/11 and once in March this year -– had conducted
recce of Nariman House, Taj Mahal hotel, Lepold Cafe,
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Oberoi-Trident hotels.
He had conducted a detailed recce of Nariman House before
the Mumbai carnage and even entered the targeted Jewish
Centre posing as a Jew. National Investigation Agency (NIA)
had recorded statements of some of the witnesses who had
either seen or accompanied Headley to Nariman House, also
known as Chabbad House.
Six of the occupants including Rabbi Gavriel Noach
Holtzberg and five-month pregnant wife Rivka were killed by
Lashkar militants. The two-year-old son of Rabbi -- Moshe --
was saved by his nanny Sandra Samuel.
The attack by LeT terrorists last year in the
five-storeyed house, which can be approached only through
narrow lanes and by-lanes of Colaba, had left the security
agencies without any doubt that a proper recce had been
conducted before the strike.
A proper communication had also been ensured so that the
terrorists attacking the Jewish centre did not get confused
within the by-lanes leading to the Nariman House, the sources
said, adding there is evidence that Headley was there in the
room when the terrorists were raining bullets in the city.
Headley, who is now facing FBI charges of conspiring in
the 26/11 attacks, had used the service of many prominent
individuals in the city to conduct a proper recce of the
places which also included Bhaba Atomic Research Centre
(BARC), Israeli Embassy in Cuffe Parade and Israeli airlines
office located in the World Trade Centre.
Headley had stayed at the Oberoi for four days in April
last year despite staying as a paying guest in Mumbai and
before that in Taj Mahal. He had later left India reportedly
for Pakistan through a Gulf country.
Investigators, probing the terror links of Headley had
found that the suspects was moving freely in Pakistan, from
where the Mumbai attackers had come and unleashed bloodbath in
the megapolis for four days.
More than 20 teams of sleuths of NIA, a prosecuting
agency established in the aftermath of 26/11, have been
entrusted to probe Headley trail and central security agencies
have been formed for gathering information about the places
Headley and his associate Tahawwur Rana had visited between
2006 and 2009.
NIA has booked Headley and Canadian-Pakistani Rana under
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for conspiring to wage a
war against the country.
PTI
