::News4u:: » Headley charged with conspiracy in 26/11 attacks in US court

News4u-News Desk- Pakistan-origin American national David Coleman Headley was on Tuesday charged in a court in Chicago with criminal conspiracy in Mumbai terror attacks and having links with a retired Pakistani army Major who liaised between him and terror groups including LeT and HuJI.

The charges filed in the Federal Court in Chicago said Headley conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the 26/11 terrorist attacks, took pictures and videotapes of various targets, and supplied them to the perpetrators of the assault.

Headley was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, murder and mutilate people in India and Denmark, provide material support to foreign terrorist plots, terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.

The charges were announced by Patrick J Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A Pakistani army Major (retired) Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed played the central role in communicating with Headley and facilitating contacts with other co-conspirators in Pakistan, including LeT members.

Major Rehman was charged with conspiracy in planning to attack a Danish newspaper.

Headley, along with Chicago man Tahawwur Rana, was arrested in October for planning terror attacks in India on behest of LeT and against a Danish newspaper.

According to the charges filed against Headley changed his name from Daood Gilani on 15th February, 2006, in Philadelphia in order to present himself in India as an Americam who was neither muslim nor Pakistani.

Headley made five trips to Mumbai in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 each time taking pictures and making videotapes of various targets, including those attacked in November 2008.

After each trip Headley undertook to India between September 2006 and July 2008, he returned to Pakistan, met other co-conspirators and provided them with details, the charges said.

In March 2008, Headley and his co-conspirators discussed potential landing sites for a team of attackers who would go to Mumbai by sea, and he was instructed to take boat trips in and around the Mumbai harbour and take surveillance video, which he did during his visit to India starting in April 2008, the charges allege.

Headley attended LeT training camps in Pakistan between February and August 2002 and August and December 2003.

At various times, he conducted surveillance of other locations in Mumbai and elsewhere in India of facilities and locations that were not attacked in November 2008, including the National Defence College in Delhi, the charges said.

Attorney Fitzgerald said the investigation would continue and the prosecutors will continue to seek charges against the other persons responsible for these attacks.

“This case serves as a reminder that the terrorist threat is global in nature and requires constant vigilance at home and abroad,” said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

“We continue to share leads developed in this investigation with our foreign and domestic law enforcement partners as we work together on this important matter,” Kris said.