Washington: Indian investigators would join
their FBI counterparts on Monday to question David Coleman
Headley, nabbed by FBI for plotting a major terror attack in
India at LeT`s behest, as fresh inputs indicated that he was
planning to visit Pakistan this month.
The investigators from IB and RAW are also expected to
probe the terror-drug nexus as it has come to light that
Headley was charged by a federal court in New York in 1997
with smuggling heroin to the US, according to court documents.
One of Headley`s cousins, Farid Gilani of Philadelphia,
told the Chicago Sun-Times that he spoke to Headley over the
phone about a month ago. "He was supposed to come (and) visit
me, but he never came," Farid Gilani was quoted as saying. "He
said `I am going back home to Pakistan."
Court papers said Headley, alias `Daood Gilani`, was
planning to go to Pakistan this month, before which he was
nabbed by the FBI.
Forty-nine-year-old Headley was arrested on October 18 along with
Tahawwur Hussein Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin,
by FBI at Chicago`s O`Hare International Airport before
boarding a flight to Philadelphia, intending to travel to
Pakistan.
Knowledgeable sources said while the Indian investigators
would like to solve the `Rahul` puzzle, the FBI is keen to
gain from the Indian expertise in quizzing known LeT-linked
terrorists and acquaintances.
A mysterious `Rahul` appeared to have been the prime
target of Headley, who had made several trips to India and
intended to stay in the country for some time -- two to four
weeks -- to execute the Lashkar-e-Toiba plans, according to US
investigators.
An affidavit filed by FBI in a Chicago court stated that
Headley in an e-mail on July eight to a senior LeT leader
whose, name has not been revealed but who has been identified
as `LeT individual A`, said, "I think when we get a chance we
should revisit our last location again and say Hi to Rahul".
Following his arrest, Headley has stated that the
reference was to `Rahul`, a prominent Indian actor with that
first name, the FBI said in its complaint.
Home Minister P Chidambaram appeared to suggest in New
Delhi that `Rahul` figuring as a target of Headley is not
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
"It is not the Rahul that you think it is. It could be a
pseudonym, it could be a code name but please be assured that
it is not the Rahul that you think is," he said.
Based in Pakistan, the banned LeT has been mainly
involved in terrorist attacks in India, including the Mumbai
strikes last year in November.
The FBI has told a Chicago court that both Headley, who
before 2006 was known as Daood Gilani, and 48-year-old Rana,
now lodged in a downtown Chicago jail, were in close contact
with LeT leaders in connection with a major terrorist attack
in India.
The bail application of Rana is scheduled to come up
before the court next week and that of Headley in December.
Childhood friends and students of same military school in
Pakistan, Headley and Rana have been charged with aiding
terrorists and could face up to life in prison if convicted.
They are also accused of conspiring with another man to
plot an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons
of Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
In 1997, when Headley was charged with smuggling heroin,
his name was Daood Saleem Gilani; under which name the case is
still in the court records which also shows he was living in
New York. Then as Gilani, Headley was travelling to Pakistan
and bringing heroin back.
Court records show, Gilani was sentenced to a 15-month
prison term.
In 1999, he sought permission from the Brooklyn Court in
New York to travel to Pakistan as his family members lived
there. He was granted the permission to travel to Pakistan on
parole.
Meanwhile, raids on the goat farm house of Rana have
become the talk of the Kinsman town on the outskirts of
Chicago. Rana used to supply goat meat to South Asian grocery
stores and had a large Indian-American and Pakistani-American
clientele.
Incidentally, there are also three nuclear power plants
near Kinsman.
Morris Daily Herald, a local daily, quoted residents as
saying that the duo "could have blown up the nuclear plants."
Bureau Report
