LeT terrorist David Headley nails Pakistan's lie, says 26/11 plotter Lakhvi's arrest by Pak 'superficial'

Headley`s deposition over the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack entered its fifth day on Saturday.

Mumbai: Nailing Pakistan's lie over it's crackdown on 26/11 perpetrators, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley's revealed on Saturday that the arrest of Lashkar commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in Pak was "only superficial" and the terror outfit's founder Hafiz Saeed would not be harmed, his handler Sajid Mir had told him.

Headley disclosed the above information to a court in Mumbai via videoconferencing from a jail in the US.

Headley`s deposition over the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack entered its fifth day today.

The deposition which is happening via video conferencing began today as special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam arrived at Mumbai court.

In yesterday`s deposition, Headley made a startling revelation that a recce of Mumbai`s Siddhivinayak temple and asked the LeT not to attack the shrine as it was heavily guarded.

Nikam said that Headley was asked by Major Iqbal to recruit the people from Baba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in order to collect confidential information from there.

"David Headley has made some new revelations today. He said that he had conducted a recce of BARC and he was asked by Major Iqbal to recruit some people from BARC to collect information," Nikam told the media here, ANI reported.

"He said that he conducted a recce of the Siddhivinayak temple and Shiv Sena Bhawan. He said that he asked the LeT not to attack Siddhivinayak temple and the Naval Air Base because they were heavily guarded," he added.

Headley, who deposed before a Mumbai court via video conferencing from an undisclosed location in the US, has disclosed the relationship between the Pakistan`s Inter-State Intelligence (ISI) service and LeT.

He had also admitted that he had met both Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Hafiz Saeed and then operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

The nearly 30-hour-long examination of Headley -- for five out of six days this week -- before Special TADA Court Judge GA Sanap ended here today afternoon.

On the final day Saturday, Headley listened to three video tapes recorded during the attacks on November 26-28, 2008 and identified different voices of handlers who were guiding and directing the 10 Pakistani terrorists from a control room in Karachi.

Lawyer Wahab Khan of another Indian co-accused Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal started Headley's cross-examination, but could pose only five questions due to paucity of time.

Besides, Khan argued that he was not handed over the statement which Headley referred to during his deposition and also needed to study the confession of the captured and hanged terrorist Ajmal Kasab.

Following a heated exchange between Khan and Nikam, counsel Mahesh Jethmalani intervened and told Special Judge Sanap that even if the timings were extended by two hours on Saturday, it would not be possible to complete the cross-examination.

Special Judge Sanap then enquired of US attorney Sarah whether cross-examination could be resumed on Monday, but she replied in the negative.

Later, Khan said he would communicate to the Special Court the time required for the cross-examination by February 22.