The Union home ministry believes the newly-formed National Investigation Agency will have to reinvestigate the 26/11 case if the David Headley-Tahawwur Rana probe produces unexpected links with the Mumbai terror attacks. This will be a serious matter and hit the Mumbai police's credibility.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, expressing his displeasure over the manner in which things were handled after his son shared information about terror suspect David Headley.
Investigators told rediff.com that more than two people within the Indian Mujahideen provided logistical support to David Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Rana to survey the targets that were attacked during 26/11.
Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul is a witness in the case relating to terror charge probe against American national David Headley, a top police official said.
Headley, accused of masterminding terror attacks in India at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, is believed to have visited Pune on a business visa and left for Mumbai later, police sources said
American terror suspect David Headley stayed at the Osho Ashram in Pune twice during his visits to the city in 2008-09 but did not register himself as a foreign national with the police, a top official said on Tuesday.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Tuesday that the National Investigation Agency has not approached the state government so far to question the 26/11 terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab on his possible links with alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives David Headley and Tahawwur Rana.
Many multiplexes and theatres in Gujarat refrained from screening Mahesh Bhatt's Tum Mile following a demand by the Mahagujarat Janta Party (MJP) for state-wide ban on it, while at other places party workers forced closure of the film shows.
A officer of Deputy Superintendent of Police rank of the National investigation Agency has reached Kochi to investigate the activities conducted by David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana after intelligence confirmed the name of a local contact for Rana, Shameer.
Investigations in the Headley-Rana case have revealed the involvement of a Kerala-based man, who has been part of the immigration business.
With the Intelligence agencies confirming that David Headley and Thahawur Hussain Rana had indeed come to Kochi and other parts of Kerala, the state police have started a massive man hunt to find out the duo's associates.
US Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, was in Mumbai this week to pay tribute to 26/11 victims and to lay out a path for future US-India relations.
Investigations showed that during his first visit to Mumbai in the year 2007, he stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel for nearly 10 days. As per investigations, Headley checked into room number 1809 in the Taj Mahal hotel and stayed there between April 20 and 30 2007. The IB says that this information is being verified and would prove crucial to the 26/11 probe.
Noted director-producer Mahesh Bhatt on Friday refused to comment on the reported links between his son Rahul and David Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative nabbed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly plotting attacks in India, and said the onus is on the investigating agencies to provide an answer on the issue. According to the Mumbai Mirror newspaper, Pakistan-born United States citizen Headley's 'Rahul' was apparently Mahesh Bhatt's son.
Investigators say David Headley may have surveyed 26/11 targets and guided the terrorists's minders in Pakistan during the actual attacks.
The presence of David Headley in Mumbai has thrown up many questions before investigators busy trying to find out whether disappeared cadres of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India and the Indian Mujahideen had used his immigration service.
"How can you rejoice when 166 people have died, when there were dozens of conspirators and you are punishing just one man? Asked Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader.
Although Headley has confessed to the FBI that he had conducted a recce of the targets in Mumbai, this is will not be enough to nail him in India. Only if Headley confesses the same details to Indian agencies can the confessions be used in the 26/11 case in India, said investigators
"Get lost" was what the US officials in Islamabad told the young Moroccan wife of 26/11 accused David Headley when she informed them that her husband was planning a terror attack in India with the help of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
All bottlenecks have been removed and a new team will be sent to the US to pursue the matter of India's access to David Headley, who has confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said on Saturday.
The US is constantly working at the "highest levels" to provide direct access to India as "quickly" as it can to Lashkar operative David Headley, who has confessed to plotting the Mumbai attacks.
'India simply wasn't prepared for the fact that a natural-born American could be organising a major terror plot in their country. And they didn't look for people like him.' 'Headley is one of the most complex and interesting terrorists of the last many years.'
India is expected to get access to Lashkar-e Tayiba operative David Headley within 30 days of sending a letter of request, which is being prepared, government indicated in New Delhi on Monday.
The issue of granting India access to Lashkar-e Tayiba operative David Headley is being taken up by the US government at the highest level, its Ambassador Timothy J Roemer said Monday as he met Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi.
India on Wednesday said it would press for access to Lashkar-e Taiba operative David Headley and his extradition and that his plea bargain with the US authorities is being examined in this context.
India will send a letter to the United States by the end of this week seeking direct access to David Headley, who pleaded guilty to 12 terror charges of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India and is currently in American custody.
The home ministry will soon write to the US department of justice seeking a date for having direct access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Headley, who is currently under American custody.
India has insisted that US must provide a direct access to its investigators to interrogate Pakistani-American David Headley, who has confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks.
A special court rejected the plea to make Pakistan-American terrorist David Headley a witness in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case on Monday after the prosecution argued that he is one of the accused and part of a module, which had filmed targets in the city.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said that India will be able to obtain access to United States terror accused David Headley for questioning in a properly constituted judicial proceeding in which he is obliged to cooperate fully.
Pakistani-American David Headley's confession in a US court about his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks has strengthened the 26/11 case, currently being heard by a special judge in Mumbai, public prosecutor in the case Ujjwal Nikam said on Friday.
Roemer said, "Headley may well be responsible for canvassing, tracking information to pass on to attackers of Mumbai blast. This is the sort of the thing that the US is extremely serious about. We want, along with Indian people and Indian government, to bring him to justice."
In the wake of the Pune blast, the Gujarat police is keeping a close watch over all the places in the state which US terror suspect David Headley's accomplice had visited in November 2008.
The government on Monday said it cannot rule out the possibility of the involvement of a foreign hand in the Pune blast, including a David Headley link, even as it disclosed that an Inter Services Intelligence -sponsored 'Karachi Project' was going on to indoctrinate Indian youth on to the path of terror.Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said there is definitely a Headley link to the Pune blast, since it took place at the German Bakery.
Addressing media persons after visiting the blast site and the Sassoon Hospital, where the injured have been admitted, Chidambaram said: "Many soft targets need to be monitored. The best police officers have been put on the job and the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad have taken over case."
In fact, in the past four years, there have been eight alerts from the Intelligence Bureau regarding a terror strike being planned on the city
American terror suspect David Headley was scheduled to visit India again in November last year, apparently to finalise the next target for terror outfit Lashker-e-Tayiba and set up a base in Delhi. Sources privy to the investigations said that Headley, 49, had told his friends in India that he was coming to the country in November.
The US said that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which so far had focused primarily on India, is having global aspirations and has spread its tentacles beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan, as manifested by the David Headley case. "Generally, LeT was east focused on India. They're now in the west. Actually, they're not just in the west, focused on Pakistan. There are LeT elements focused on Afghanistan," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said.
Headley visited Goa in 2008 during the last leg of the reccee that he had conducted in Mumbai. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau told rediff.com that Headley was definitely not on a holiday in Goa, but was exploring the possibility of carrying out a terror strike in the tourist destination. The NIA says it is possible that Headley was using the American couple in Goa as a cover. For the Lashkar, Goa was a backup option to the Mumbai attack.
In a new twist to the Headley case, it now turns out that the US national arrested for plotting terror strikes in India was in touch with another American who has been living in India on a tourist visa for nine years and running a massage parlour.
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