26/11 Mumbai attacks: David Headley reveals details of operatives, says ISI funded terror operations in India

Mumbai attacks accused David Coleman Headley made new revelations about the carnage.

The Pakistani-American terrorist, Headley, said the ISI and LeT majorly funded terror operations in India.

Headley said ISI and LeT financed him at regular intervals and Pakistan native Tahawwur Rana visited Mumbai before the terror strikes.
Resuming his deposition before a court here today via video-link, the LeT operative also said that RBI has turned down a request to open a bank account for their office in India.

"Tahawur Rana (Headley's associate and a Pakistani native who operated a Chicago-based immigration business) used to send me money from the US in September 2006 when I came to India to do intelligence work on instructions of LeT," he told the court.

The 55-year-old, who recently turned approver in the case, also said that "it was my idea to open an office in India. It was a part of my cover (as an immigration consultant). I had discussed about this with Major Iqbal and Sajid Mir and they both agreed to it."

"I also told Rana that Major Iqbal had asked me to do intelligence work in India. Iqbal told me that if Rana was reluctant to be associated with this (Headley's India operations) then he (Headley) should appeal to his (Rana's) sense of patriotism towards Pakistan," he testified.
"But Rana was not reluctant and he agreed readily for me to go to India," Headley said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Headley had told the court that terror outfits like LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen were given moral, financial and military support by the Pakistani intelligence agency besides making fresh revelations including about an aborted plan to target Indian defence scientists and famous Siddhivinayak temple here.

He said he was working for ISI besides LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) and that he knew about ISI official Brigadier Riyaz being the handler of LeT's top commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who was the mastermind of the November 26, 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

He named three officials of the Pakistan army and ISI --Colonel Shah, Lt Colonel Hamza and Major Samir Ali - besides retired army officer Abdul Rehman Pasha who was closely working with LeT and Al-Qaeda.

Headley said his assessment was that ISI and LeT were coordinating with each other.

Headley, who had visited Mumbai seven times to scout for targets, revealed that plans to harm the metropolis had started over a year before the attacks in 2008 and that LeT initially wanted to attack a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel for which even a dummy of the hotel was prepared.

But the plan to target scientists was dropped because of logistical reasons, like difficulty in smuggling in weapons and personnel and lack of details about the schedule of the meet, he said.

The LeT operative had said he had also conducted a recce of the famous Siddhivinayak Temple and Naval air station.

(Image: Indiatimes)