Chicago: Mumbai attack co-accused David
Headley on Thursday told a US court that a Pakistani Navy man was
present during discussions with his ISI handler Major Iqbal on
landing sites and arrival of LeT terrorists by sea.
Headley also said he had attended over 50 training
sessions with the powerful Pakistan`s intelligence agency and
that he always briefed Iqbal first during his visits to
Paksitan. Iqbal was briefed at a Lahore safehouse, he said.
The 50-year-old Pakistani-American gave details of the
Mumbai attack plot involving his Pakistani handlers while
being cross-examined by the defence attorney Charles D Swift
on the fourth day of the trial of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani
of Canadian origin and another co-accused in the case.
Headley said ISI provided him a special discourse in
Lahore for carrying out surveillance ahead of the Mumbai
carnage dissatisfied with the military and espionage training
received by him from the Pakistan-based terror outfit
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
"ISI did provide me (espionage) training," he said,
adding that he had attended 50 training sessions over a period
of time.
Headley replied in the affirmative when asked by Swift
if anyone from the Pakistan naval establishment was present
during meetings with Iqbal on landing sites in Mumbai to carry
out the attack.
"When discussing the landing site, someone from the
Pakistan Navy was present--clean shaved, military bearing,
hair cut."
Q. Do you know his name?
A. Abdur Rahman was his name.
During questioning, Headley also said he did not know
anyone in ISI above Major Iqbal.
Headley also believed that his LeT handler Sajid Mir
had a separate handler in the ISI.
The training by the Pakistan intelligence agency to
Headley was provided by Iqbal on the streets and in a
two-storey safe house in Lahore near the airport, Headley told
the jury during the course of questioning by Swift.
Headley told the court that when he met Major Iqbal in
2006, he expressed dissatisfaction at the military and
espionage training that he had received from the LeT earlier.
Major Iqbal, who was identified by Headley as
`Chaudhery Khan`, told him that the training received from
LeT was "not very good" and was "very elementary", so he
decided to give instructions to him.
It was a two-storey house in a residential
neighbourhood and there was a small compound outside the
house, Headley said when pressed by Swift during the closing
hours on the third day of the trial yesterday.
The statements formed part of the testimony of
Headley, who has pleaded guilty.
These disclosures, which further cements India`s
charges that elements of ISI were involved in the 26/11, is
also corroborated by information given by federal prosecutors
in the documents to the court, which have been unsealed.
Headley said he had taken videos of the Taj Hotel in
Mumbai several times and also inside of a train station in
CST.
Q. Video surveillance at railway station was an egress
route(act of getting out of target area)?
A. Yes
Q. That was Major Iqbal planning?
A. Yes
Q. You were not detected?
A. Yes
Q. This is the landing site, you identified ?
A. Yes
Q. What u were looking for?
A. Looking for something safe where we could not be detected.
Headley said he went to the Taj to video the area on
numerous times and that he had stayed in the Taj on April 7, 2007 along with his second wife (from Morocco) with me.
He testified he used the occasion to video tape and take pictures and that his second wife was covered in a veil.
PTI
