'His deposition shows that the dividing line between Pakistan's State and non-State actors had completely blurred in Mumbai's 26/11 terror strikes.'
The National Investigation Agency has finished the paperwork needed to question Tawwahur Rana, who was sentenced to a 14-year jail term for providing support to Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, indicted on charges of being involved in the Mumbai terror attacks, will be arraigned in a court in Chicago next week. The arraignments of Rana and Headley were initially scheduled for Wednesday, but have now been rescheduled. While Pakistani-Canadian citizen Rana will be arraigned on January 25, Pakistani-American Headley's arraignment has been set for January 27.
David Coleman Headley, co-accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, lied to the law enforcement agencies and implicated Tawahhur Hussain Rana in the plot in a bid to save his life, defence attorneys said on Wednesday.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday blamed Indian security agencies for their failure to prevent the Mumbai terror attack and alleged that Indian non-state actors were involved in the massacre.
British authorities have claimed that they had tipped off the Americans about David Coleman Headley, arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for plotting attacks in India at the Lashkar-e-Tayiba's behest.
America's Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday strongly refuted reports that Pakistani-origin US national David Coleman Headley, charged with criminal conspiring in the 26/11 terror attacks, was its agent at any point of time.
The terrorist duo David Colman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana had planned to blast two major temples in Kerala -- the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple and Guruyaur Sreekrishna Swami temple -- to spread panic in the state and country, central intelligence sources told rediff.com.
David Coleman Headley, the American Lashkar-e-Tayiba suspect in the Mumbai terror attack case, did not disclose his Pakistani-origin while seeking an Indian visa, raising no alarm bells at the Indian Consulate in Chicago. Headley, who was earlier called Dawood Gilani, gave 'Headley' as his last name at birth in his visa application and wrote his father's name as 'William Headley', according to reliable information.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and 26/11 attacks accused David Coleman Headley has proven to the visiting Indian investigating team that he was a rogue agent and has immense experience in dodging interrogation.
International arrest warrants have been issued by the Interpol against five Pakistani nationals for their alleged role in the Mumbai terror attack and plotting to carry out more strikes.
Senior US administration sources and law enforcement officials have told rediff.com that it was President Barack Obama's "personal interest" in the David Coleman Headley case that led to the speedy indictment of the Chicago-based Pakistan American and also the dispatching of a team to New Delhi to brief India sleuths.
The alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley, arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for conspiring to carry out terror attacks in India, had stayed in a hotel in south Mumbai during his visit to the city, police said in Mumbai on Monday.
A recent ProPublica investigation termed Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley as a double agent working for both the American Central Intelligence Agency and the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence.
The "serious" prison sentence for Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana should send a tough message to all individuals planning to indulge in any direct or indirect terrorist activities that they cannot escape detection and punishment, US prosecutors said on Friday.
Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a United States court. Headley, 49, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's joint terrorism task force on October 3, 2009, told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence.
In a volte-face, Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a US court in Chicago.
The United States prosecutors on Tuesday sought 30 years' imprisonment for Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, an accomplice of convicted terrorist David Headley, for providing material support to Laskar-e-Tayiba and conspiring for a terror attack on a Danish newspaper.
Pakistani-American LeT operative David Coleman Headley on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to the 12 counts filed against him in the superseding indictment returned on January 14, including charges he conspired in plotting the terror attacks in Mumbai and a Danish newspaper.
India has relaxed its tourist visa rules by lifting restrictions imposed on foreign visitors who want to visit India within a period of 60 days of their earlier visit.Citizens of Pakistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sudan, people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and "stateless persons" will continue to come under the 60-day rule.
Mumbai attacks co-accused David Coleman Headley has testified that he received espionage training against India from Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.
'We are trying to harden the targets. We have so many soft targets. Hardening of even one of them in itself becomes a challenge... If you go by all the alerts that have come, including the targets tracked down by David Headley, there are more than 115 targets in Mumbai city. Even if you try to harden all those targets, every day new targets are coming up. Now you have to add all these new hotels and restaurants,' Rajvardhan, the daring police officer who fought the terrorists at the Taj Mahal hotel on 26/11, tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel in the second part of a three-part exclusive interview.
The political slugfest on Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case on Friday saw the Bharatiya Janata Party supporting Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's demand that the home ministry come clean on the issue of her alleged terror links as agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau, the Central Bureau of investigation and the National Investigation Agency have differences over it.
The National Investigation Agency has finally registered a First Information Report against Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal and his associate Fayaz Kagazi for further investigation in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The main trend of these cables have shown that "our government has been succumbing to American pressures... particularly on foreign policy (with the government) accepting the broad thrust of US policies," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told media persons in New Delhi.
In an interview to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Stephen Tankel, who is currently in India to study home grown terror, talks about Headley, co-accused Tawwahur Rana and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.
'Headley and his counsel agreed to the meetings (with the Indian investigators) and Headley answered the Indian investigators' questions over the course of seven days of interviews. There were no restrictions on the questions posed by Indian investigators,' said a statement from the US Justice Department
Tahawwur Rana, the 26/11 co-accused, did not congratulate co-conspirator David Coleman Headley, unlike several others, on the success of the Mumbai terror attacks, attorney of the Pakistani-Canadian said during the trial.
To a question, Headley further clarified that he had informed the NIA that 'this woman (Jahan) was an Indian and an LeT operative' but could not explain why this was not recorded in his statement.
The United States on Friday said it would continue its hunt for dreaded terrorist Illyas Kashmiri, Lashkar-e-Tayiba handler Sajid Mir and four others involved in the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans. The six are named in the indictment in the case in a Chicago court, which is hearing charges against Tahawwur Rana and David Headley. Rana was on Thursday sentenced to 14 years in jail.
Tahawwur Rana, an accomplice of convicted terrorist David Headley, was on Thursday sentenced to 14 years in jail followed by five years of supervised release by a United States court for providing material support to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba and for backing a plot to strike a Danish newspaper.
Tahawwur Rana, an accomplice of convicted terrorist David Headley, faces up to 30 years in prison during his sentencing in a United States court on for providing material support to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba involved in Mumbai attacks as well as for backing a plot to strike a Danish newspaper.
Pakistani-origin terror convict Tahawwur Rana, whose extradition to India has received a green signal, was 'very relaxed' in the days after the 26/11 attacks and wanted Pakistan's highest military honour to be bestowed on the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists who carried out the carnage in Mumbai.
The SC on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking quashing of criminal prosecution, suspension and other action taken against the Gujarat cops in the alleged fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan
Ahead of Thursday's Foreign Minister-level talks, Pakistan expressed disappointment over Indian Home Secretary G K Pillai's remarks on the Inter-Services-Intyelligence's involvement in the Mumbai terror attack citing leads from Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley's interrogation.
The verdict of a United States court holding Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana not guilty of the Mumbai terror attacks would not affect the legal proceedings against terrorist Ajmal Kasab and the charge against Lashkar-e-Tayiba of masterminded the strikes, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said on Friday.
In this report for ProPublica, Sebastian Rotella describes what the world learnt, and did not, about Pakistan's terror connection from Rana's Chicago trial.
The 59-year-old Rana, a childhood friend of David Coleman Headley, was re-arrested on June 10 in Los Angeles on an extradition request by India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.
A US court on Monday rejected Pakistan born Canadian Tahawwur Rana's plea for a new trial in cases related to the Mumbai and Denmark terror plots, saying there is no reason to believe the court erred in convicting David Headley's co-accused for aiding Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
India is all set to ask the United States and Pakistan to extradite nine persons involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that include Pakistani- American terrorist David Headley, Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed and two Inter-Services Intelligence officers.