On Board PM's Special Aircraft: India
today said it would like to get "access" to arrested US terror
suspects David Coleman Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur
Rana for interrogation following incriminating evidence about
their role in the Mumbai attacks.
New Delhi also said that it expects a satisfactory
solution to the problem of terrorism in Pakistan while dealing
with the larger issue of terrorism emanating form that country
and Afghanistan.
"We would like to have access to interrogate these
accused (Headley and Rana) persons," Rao told newsmen
accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his return home
from Moscow.
She was replying to a question whether India would
seek the extradition of Headley and Rana, who are currently in
FBI custody, in Chicago in the US.
Her comments came a day after US authorities charged
Headley with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai attacks.
Rao said it has emerged that there were lots of
incriminating evidence about the role of Headley and Rana in
planning the Mumbai attacks.
Available evidence also suggested that some of the
conspirators of the 26/11 attacks were from Pakistan, she
said.
In this regard, Headley will soon be charged separately by Mumbai Police for allegedly conducting recce of targets hit by Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists in the metropolis in last year's audacious attacks.
The decision to file a supplementary chargesheet in the 26/11 case comes after the FBI approached the Chicago court in the US and gave details about the reconnaissance missions carried out by the American national at the behest of Lashker.
However, the additional chargesheet will be filed by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch only after Indian investigators get access to interrogate Headley, arrested by FBI and now under US custody.
During his multiple visit to India, Headley is accused of taking pictures and making videotapes of various places, including those targeted on 26/11 by terrorists belong to LeT.
After each trip Headley undertook to India between September 2006 and July 2008, he is believed to have returned to Pakistan, met other co-conspirators and provided them with photographs, videos and oral descriptions of various locations.
Headley's name did not feature in the chargesheet filed by Mumbai police in connection with the terror attacks.
The charges filed in the Federal Court in Chicago allege that Headley conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the November 26, 2008, terrorist attack.
Investigations into the 26/11 terror strike led the Mumbai Police Crime Branch to Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin who allegedly helped in taking pictures and video filming of hotels including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi. The two were taken to custody from two different jails in Uttar Pradesh and have been booked in the case.
The duo, both Indian nationals, face charges in other terror related incidents in the country, conspiracy to wage war against the country and helping terror outfit LeT in carrying out the daring attack in the megapolis.
The crime branch is still investigating as to how the recce of Nariman House, a Jewish prayer centre located in a narrow lane in South Mumbai's Colaba, was done.
According to the chargesheet filed by FBI in the Chicago court against Headley, the terror suspect, who received training in Lashker camps, conspired with the organisation to carry out extensive surveillance including making videos of targets like the Taj Mahal hotel, the Oberoi hotel, the Leopold Cafe, the Nariman House, and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station.
-PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 08, 2009, 23:45