NIA sources say that the questionnaire for Rana would be more on the lines of the one prepared for American terror operative David Coleman Headley, but there would be more additions to it once his testimony before the US court is complete
With the arrest of Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley the attack on the offices of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons was averted. But the masterminds of this attack are the ones who planned and executed the 26/11 strikes -- Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal and Major Iqbal. The US court may have named them conspirators in the Mumbai attacks, but the danger is far from over. They are still at large in Pakistan.
Post 9/11, Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley was under the scanner of the US intelligence who believed he was related to a top ISI official. While there has been indication that he could have worked as an informant for US enforcement agencies in Pakistan, today the US agencies deny it. What's shocking is that despite regular tipoffs on Headley, he was given a clean chit time and again by the US, reports ProPublica's Sebastian Rotella.
The sentencing of Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley is expected to happen only by early next year, after the trial of co-accused Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana is complete, Headley's lawyer said in Chicago.
The four member National Investigative Agency team has concluded questioning of Mumbai terror suspect David Coleman Headley and has headed back home, Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar said on Thursday.
The NIA, which has been on the trail of American terror operative David Coleman Headley, had been hoping to piece together the terror jig-saw by gaining independent access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, who are alleged to have masterminded the Mumbai carnage.
The United States will inform India by next week about possible dates, most likely in this month, for giving direct access to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley.
Months before the Federal Bureau of Investigation finally arrested David Coleman Headley, his Moroccan wife Faiza Outalha had tried to warn the FBI about the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative's terror links.
Observing that Al Qaeda and its affiliates are still committed to striking the United States, a top American intelligence official has told US lawmakers that lone-wolf and homegrown extremist now poses an equally serious threat to the country.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday expressed happiness over media reports that Indian investigating agencies would get direct access to David Coleman Headley, the man charged with scouting targets for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Indian agencies say they are fully aware that Pakistan is trying to put pressure on the US, to deny access to Indian investigators. For the US it is more of an embarrassing situation since, Headley is not the only one who has helped launch a terror attack from their soil. Headley had contacted several persons undertaking similar jobs and the US would not like that information to come out in the open, sources pointed out.
Determined to seek the extradition of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley and access to him, India will raise the issue with US at the official-level during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's four-day visit to the US.
US has said that it is yet to take a decision on Lashkar operative David Coleman Headley's extradition to India, said Robert Blake, the Obama Administration's point man for South Asia, especially India-Pakistan relations.
A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) termed the report as false and fabricated, and said that they were aimed at maligning the image of the Pakistan Army and the ISI.
David Headley's latest revealations show the extent of the Pakistani army's involvement in formenting terror in India. Headley said that when he was training with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, there were six Pakistani army officials who were directly involved in helping the LeT carry out terror strikes in India.
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.
The US administration had informed the Indian government before it finalized a deal with David Coleman Headley to change his plea to guilty, sources said.
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.
The Indian government will be 'satisfied' if Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty in a United States court to his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, is awarded a life sentence, Home Secretary G K Pillai said on Friday. "The US attorney general has advised a sentence of life imprisonment. If he gets a sentence of life imprisonment, I don't think the government of India will be unsatisfied," he said.
Law enforcement sources rubbished allegations that Headley was a double agent for US intelligence and that this was why he was not being made available for interrogation by Indian intelligence.
Official access for Indian investigators probing the Mumbai terror attack to Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley will help prove to the world Pakistan's involvement in the 26/11 strikes, the Bharatiya Janata Party has stated."It (consequences of his pleading guilty before a United States court) is a mixed bag. As we cannot get extradition, it is a loss. But, at the same time, we can get official access," BJP said.
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley had participated in terror camps being run by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan, despite promises by the then president Parvez Musharraf in 2002 to the George W Bush administration, that all such facilities will be shut down. Headley, a LeT operative arrested in October 2009 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had attended five such training camps run by the terror outfit between 2002 and 2003, according to Headley's plea agreement.
A top United States intelligence official has said that the probe in the Mumbai terror siege is an 'excellent example' of cooperation between India and the United States, even as Indian authorities are smarting over the US administration's refusal to hand over Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley on charges related to his involvement in the 26/11 attack.
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.
'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.
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.
Charged with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Taiyba operative David Coleman Headley will be produced in a Chicago court on Wednesday, where he will respond to the charges against him. Headley is set to appear for his arraignment before US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in United States district court, Northern District of Illinois. Co-accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana appeared in the same court on Monday and pleaded not guilty.
Canadian-Pakistani Tahawwur Hussain Rana, indicted on charges of helping plan the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, is expected to be arraigned in a court here on January 21 along with co-accused David Coleman Headley.
The extradition of arrested American national and Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley is likely to take place only after the Mumbai police files a supplementary chargesheet against him in connection with the 26/11 terror attacks case.
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.
India said it was awaiting further information from the US with regard to probe against suspected Lashkar operatives David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana arrested in Chicago in October. The FBI revealed to India two weeks ago that the LeT were linked to the Mumbai attacks.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, party member Brinda Karat claimed that Headley, earlier a drug smuggler, worked as an undercover agent of the US intelligence agency CIA since 1999 and the US government helped him make frequent trips to Pakistan.
An attack on India's National Defence College was discussed by suspected LeT operatives David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who offered praise for the terror outfit LeT and said he "appreciates them from heart", US prosecutors alleged on Monday.
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.
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.
A team of officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States' Department of Justice, currently in India, will travel to Pakistan to follow up on leads about Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley's activities there. The team, which briefed Indian officials on Monday in New Delhi, will travel to Pakistan, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. Kelly said the FBI has been consulting closely with Pakistani authorities on this case.
A Lahore-based retired Pakistan army major has emerged as a key link between the Mumbai terror attack suspect David Coleman Headley and his Pakistani handlers who guided him in planning and plotting strikes in India.
US President Barack Obama believes that indictment of David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American charged with criminal conspiracy in Mumbaiterror attacks, is an "important day" in his effort to protect the people from terrorists.
While the prosecution and defence presented closing arguments in the trial of 26/11 accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the Pakistani-Canadian doctor chose to remain silent and did not take to the stand. Rana, a co-accused with David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai terror attacks, did not testify at his trial, as the federal jury was set to begin its deliberations.
Senior Police Inspector Ramesh Mahale tells Sheela Bhatt that the Headley-Rana angle will not affect his case.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances