Mumbai: The last visit of American terror
suspect David Headley, before being arrested by the FBI, to
India in March this year was to finalise synchronised terror
strikes on Jewish houses located in five cities at the
instance of terror outfit Lashker-e-Taiba.
Piecing together the travel trail of Headley during his
visit to India in March this year, security agencies, who were
briefed by FBI and US Department of Justice officials in New
Delhi recently, are understood to have concluded that the US
terror suspect was scouting only the Jewish targets including
the El Al airlines office here.
Headley, born to a Pakistani father and whose earlier
name was Daood Gilani, has been charged by the FBI for
conspiring in the audacious Mumbai attack of last year which
left over 160 dead including six foreigners. On the Indian
side, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), which was
formed in the aftermath of 26/11, was probing the role of
Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Rana.
Sources privy to the investigations said that Headley
had carried out reconnaissance of Israeli airlines -- El AI--
office located at Cuffe Parade in March this year before
moving to the national capital where he chose to stay in a
small hotel at Pahargunj area.
Very quickly, the security agencies carried out the recce
of the area and found a Chabad House, barely 300 metres from
the hotel -- De Holiday Inn.
The Chabad House in Pahargunj, Delhi is located in narrow
lanes and is frequented generally by backpackers from Israel
while either going to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh or to
western parts of the country.
The sources said Headley also visited the house and posed
as Jew while carrying out his reconnaissance mission for
terror group Lashker.
Statements of a few have been recorded by the NIA, the
sources said.
From Delhi, Headley travelled to Pushkar in the
outskirts of Ajmer in Rajasthan where he insisted on a room
opposite a Jewish prayer centre claiming he was a Jew and
wanted "holy sight".
The hotel staff, in their statements to the NIA, said
that 48-year-old Headley had insisted on the room view which
was right opposite to the prayer hall of the Jew centre in
Pushkar.
After staying there for three days, Headley moved to Goa
where he stayed at a guest house located in Anjuna village
along the coast of Arabian sea before proceeding towards Pune
where he recced the area around Koregaon Park.
Though initially it was believed that he wanted to target
the foreigners coming to the Osho Ashram, it was found later
that he had scouted the area for targeting the Jewish prayer
centre in the area.
Headley later left for Mumbai where he again went to the
Cuffe Prade area and apparently firmed up some loose ends in
targeting the Israel Airways office before flying to Pakistan
from the Chatrapati Shivaji airport.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 09, 2009, 17:57