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.
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.
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.
Tahawwur Rana, accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has renewed his application to the US Supreme Court seeking a stay of his extradition to India. The Supreme Court will hear the application next month. Rana, currently detained in Los Angeles, claims his extradition would violate US law and expose him to torture in India due to his health and Muslim background. The US government has denied these claims and authorized his surrender to India, citing the Extradition Treaty between the two countries. The Supreme Court's decision will determine if Rana will face justice in India or remain in the United States.
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.
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 "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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The hugely significant development comes just days after Rana's last-resort attempt to evade extradition to India failed after the US Supreme Court justices denied his application, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice in the dastardly attacks.
'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 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.
Mumbai attacks co-accused David Coleman Headley has testified that he received espionage training against India from Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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
'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.
This was Rana's last legal chance not to be extradited to India. Earlier, he lost a legal battle in several federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the North Circuit in San Francisco.
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.
While National Investigating Agency has received a go ahead to file a chargesheet against Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain and others including ISI officers in the 26/11 case, the agency feels it needs to file a supplementary chargesheet in the case. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Describing it as "frivolous", the Bombay high court on Wednesday rejected a defence lawyer's petition seeking removal of Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the 26/11 attacks case.
Three years have passed since India witnessed one of its worst terror attacks. While the National Investigating Agency tries stack up evidence against David Headley and Tahawwur Rana, security agencies across the country find themselves being foxed by a new wave of terror: unroganised hell.
Ambiguous replies about his travels abroad aroused the suspicions of airport officials and led to the arrest of Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, David Headley, charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks.
The US and Indian authorities are holding discussions on providing New Delhi access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley who has confessed to his role in the Mumbai terror attacks and agreed to be interrogated by foreign agencies.
At least six suspected 'masterminds' of the Mumbai terror attacks are still at large in Pakistan and there is mounting evidence of the Inter Services Intelligence's strong links to the 2008 strikes, an investigative report said on Monday.
Home Secretary G K Pillai said Indian agencies were "disappointed" with not being provided specific information on David Headley while US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer told reporters that US provided "regular and consistent" information to India even before 26/11 attacks.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty to charges of his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, would testify against his Pakistani handlers Illyas Kashmiri and Sajid Mir, a United States attorney has said.
