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.
"There are elements in Pakistan that have not yet been the focus of the Pakistani counterinsurgency efforts," Gen Petraeus said in reply to a query raised by Senator Claire McCaskill, who expressed concern over the inability of Pakistan authorities in taking "substantial action" against the LeT.
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike, will plead guilty before a United States court on Thursday, five months after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In an interview with Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, George Alexander Mapp, a friend of Faiza Outalha, estranged wife of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Coleman Headley, talks about his relationship with Faiza, his ordeal with the NIA and what he thinks about the Headley case.
Revelations by Pakistani-American David Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, may have prompted Islamabad to finally go after the Afghan-Taliban, a noted United States scholar on South Asia has said.
India demanded the handover of retired Army Major Iqbal besides Hafiz Saeed and some Lashkar operatives like Muzzamil, Abu Hamza, Abu Kahfa, Usman and Sajjid Mir in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks. The other fugitives demanded by India were Indian Mujahideen chief Asif Raza Khan and its senior member Riaz Bhatkal
Lawyers representing seven Pakistani suspects currently being tried by an anti-terror court for alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks have claimed that their lives are in danger and no security is being provided to them despite a court order in this regard.
'If India had used its diplomatic leverage after 26/11, we had lots in our favour but we abandoned it. The world thinks we are not serious about handling terror,' says security analyst Maroof Raza.
'Lashkar clearly poses the greatest danger to India,' says Stephen Tankel, author of a book on the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
After lying low for over a year due to the scrutiny of its leaders in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, Jamaat-ud-Dawah, the frontal outfit of Lashkar-e-Tayiba, has stepped up its activities and unveiled plans to hold major conferences of Pakistani jihadi groups on Kashmir this week.
The bail plea of Tahawwur Hussein Rana, who faces possible life sentence for involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, has been opposed by federal prosecutors in a Chicago court, which asked the Pakistani-Canadian Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative to respond to this by January 20.
The Pakistani court hearing the Mumbai terror attack case on Wednesday rejected the appeal for the acquittal of the seven suspects arrested in the case, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba's operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. The trial is being held at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.The court also turned down an application by lawyers of the seven accused.
The Maharashtra government on Friday asked Pakistan to receive the bodies of the nine Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists killed during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, lying in the J J Hospital morgue for over a year now.
Lahore-based Ghazwa Times said, 'The veil of Ishrat Jahan, a woman activist of LeT, was removed by Indian police and her body was kept with other Mujahideens (terrorists) on the ground.'
'Elements like the LeT may see the fight against the coronavirus as an opportunity of a lifetime,' warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Pakistani-origin American national David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with criminal conspiracy in the 26/11 terror attacks, now appears to have turned into an informant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to avoid death penalty.
Pakistan appears to be building a case for absolving its intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence, of any involvement in the Mumbai attacks, planning to use the confessions from Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists to prove its argument that non-state actors 'operating on their own' were behind the terror strikes. Pakistani authorities have obtained confessions from members of LeT that they were involved in the November 26 attacks, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley wants his five-year-old son to one day become a soldier in Pakistani army's elite Special Service Group, which is known for its anti-India operations. Headley, who was the star government witness in the Chicago trial of his childhood friend Tahawwur Rana in June, had been grooming his son.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American accused of criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks, is set to appear before a court in Chicago on Wednedsay to respond to the charges against him.
Top Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Zarar Shah captured in the crackdown on militants earlier this month in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, has confessed the group's involvement in the terror attacks in Mumbai, a media report said on Wednesday.
A Pakistani court on Thursday sought a "fresh and comprehensive" response from the foreign ministry to a petition by Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed asking it to direct the government to defend him in a United States lawsuit filed by relatives of victims of the 26/11 attacks.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others, being tried in an anti-terror court for their involvement in the Mumbai attacks, were arrested by the Pakistani authorities with the 'sole purpose of pleasing' India, Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed has claimed."The truth is that the (Pakistan) government arrested various leaders who endorse Jihad in Kashmir and did so for the sole purpose of pleasing India," he said.
Authorities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir released the four detained workers of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba's front organisation and also withdrew police guards posted at the home of the group's regional head, Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi.
The operation launched by Pakistani security forces against banned militant groups, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, will continue till the desired results are achieved, officials said on Tuesday. Lashkar operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi, accused of masterminding the Mumbai terror attacks, is among more than 20 activists of the Lashkar and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah who have been arrested since the crackdown began on Sunday, sources said.
Riedel, who was also the erstwhile director for South Asia in the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration and most recently an adviser on foreign policy to the Obama campaign, said it's difficult to believe the Pakistani government's assertions that its intelligence service has no links to LeT. If there's anything that is a 64 million dollar question today," it is finding out the "extent of its ties to the Pakistani intelligence service."
As an immediate fall-out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation foiling a Lashkar-e-Tayiba plot to use United States nationals to carry out major terror attacks in India, the Indian Embassy in Washington has tightened visa approval norms for Pakistan-born American citizens, whose applications would now have to be cleared by New Delhi. An instruction in this regard has recently been issued by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai.
A Chicago court has given a 60-day deadline to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to complete its investigations and file an indictment into the foiled terror plot in India and Denmark by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist group.
While security agencies have been able to prevent any major terror strikes since the Mumbai attacks last November, we should not lower our guard, writes security expert B Raman.
Attorneys of Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was convicted on Thursday by a United States court for providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and helping plan a terror plot in Denmark, said they would appeal against the verdict as there was an error in the trial. Rana's attorney Patrick Blegan said he would file post-trial motions, claiming there was not enough evidence to convict him and there was an error in the trial.
While Pakistani handler Sajid Mir and ISI's Major Iqbal are both in the dock in the Chicago court where Tahawwur Rana is being tried for his role in the 26/11 terror attacks, Mir remains Pakistan's biggest worry. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
A Pakistani anti-terror court has formally indicted Lashkar-e-Tayiba's operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks and adjourned the case for a week.
Chief Pakistan prosecutor in the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, Chaudhry Azhar says the bail will lead to unusual delays in the case. Shahzad Raza reports from Islamabad.
Aveek Sen on how the Lashkar e Tayiba looks at the world while focusing on India and Afghanistan.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday adjourned for a week the trial of seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba's operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, in connection with the terror attack on Mumbai. The judge, conducting the trial within the high-security Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, has imposed strict gag orders. However, sources said the hearing was again adjourned on Saturday for a week. But the reason for putting off the trial was not known.
Pakistan believes Afghanistan is developing into an Indian garrison and has been nurturing groups like the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Tayiba over the years to counter it, a key United States Senate Committee has been told. "I am not making any accusations against any given country in the region. All of them are looking out for their vital interests. But India is becoming involved in Afghanistan and Pakistanis consider Afghanistan as developing into an Indian garrison," he said.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court hearing the case against seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who were arrested for their involvement in the Mumbai attacks, was on Saturday postponed till October 3 as the judge conducting the trial was on leave. Judge Baqir Ali Rana of the anti-terrorism court No 2 is conducting the trial of the seven suspects within high-security Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
The Pakistani police on Wednesday said they were awaiting instructions from the government for taking further action against founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who was placed under house arrest after two cases were registered against him under an anti-terror law.
A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of seven suspects charged with planning and facilitating the Mumbai attacks on Tuesday asked the government to respond to Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi's bail plea by July 17.
A Pakistani anti-terror court adjourned till August 29 the trial of five Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives, including its operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
