Observing that the revised regulations primarily affect travellers who wish to enter India within two months of their last departure from India on tourist visa, the US Embassy said it has received reports about the problem being faced by other visa holders also.
The precision with which the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks were carried out is something that shocked the entire world. The attackers seemed to know their way around the targets -- in a similar manner as one would go about in his own home! This could have been possible, thanks to the nearly 18 hours of video footage that was made available to the ten gunmen who unleashed violence on Mumbai last year, killing scores of innocent people.
The attorney for suspected LeT operative David Headley charged with criminal conspiracy in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks has said his client is cooperating in the investigation, but declined to comment on "the substance of the allegation" in the charges filed by US prosecutors.
Indian investigators have found answers to many of the questions in the 26/11 attacks case based on the recent briefing with US investigation teams and the new charges filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation against suspected Lashkar terrorist David Headley.
The curious case of the Indian Consulate in Chicago issuing a visa to Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India, appears to be getting more complicated. Both Rana and his wife Samraz Rana had been issued multi-entry visas by the Consulate with the visa stamp clearly stating that this had been issued at the 'discretion of the CG' (Consul General).
Even as a team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation gets ready to share a mammoth dossier on David Headley and Tawwahur Rana, Indian agencies are bracing themselves to gather information on the duo.
US terror suspect David Headley had conducted a detailed reccee of Nariman House before the Mumbai carnage and even entered the targeted Jewish Centre posing as a Jew, official sources said on Thursday. The new detail of Headley's movement in this western metropolis prior to the 26/11 attack came on the back of evidence that the US national had also visited and stayed at Taj and Oberoi here--the two luxury hotels which was attacked.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office has assured film-maker Mahesh Bhatt that the Home Ministry will inquire into the "leak" of information relating to his son having known David Headley, a US terror suspect arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for plotting strikes in India. An agitated Bhatt had written a letter to Singh on November 15 in which the film-maker said he felt a sense of "great betrayal" over the manner in which his son was handled by investigators.
Fresh details have emerged about David Headley, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October for plotting terror attacks in India, with the United States media reporting that the terror suspect was born to a Pakistani diplomat father and an American mother.At the age of 16, Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, was taken out of Pakistan, where he attended a military school, and brought to Philadelphia by his mother.
"The NIA team is in Mumbai since Saturday and is gathering details pertaining to the activities of Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana. The NIA has recorded the statements of those who were in touch with Headley during his stay in the city," a senior police source told PTI.
Tahawur Hussain Rana, who was arrested in the United States along with terror operative David Headley by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last month, had visited Kochi on November 16, last year, and had stayed in Taj Residency (now named Gateway) for a day.
"I have read news reports attributed to security agencies wherein they have said that Rahul has not been given a clean chit for his Headley connection. I am deeply hurt. He is a true and responsible Indian who himself volunteered to share the information with the agencies. Rahul's heart is clear and he doesn't require any clean chit from anyone," Bhatt told PTI.
The star has played Rahul quite a few times in the movies.
India said on Sunday that it is yet to get access to Lashkar-e Taiba operative David Headley but negotiations are underway on this issue and it is "satisfied" with the progress of discussions.
A request letter for access to Headley, Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative who has admitted his role in Mumbai attacks, would be sent by Home Ministry next week to the US Department of Justice, official sources said on Friday.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that there was no confusion over the issue of Indian investigators getting direct access to Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley or not.
India will have "full access" to all the information on terror suspect David Headley, who pleaded guilty before a Chicago court to all 12 terror charges including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, US Assistance Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake said in New Delhi on Friday.
Home Secretary G K Pillai said if Headley gets severe punishment and comes out of the judicial process, it would be easier for India to get access to the Pakistan-born American national in jail. "If he is given a light sentence, it would not only be disappointing but we will be registering a very strong protest with the US," Pillai told NDTV hours ahead of the hearing against Headley in Chicago.
Nikam said it was not yet clear whether Headley would plead guilty to all the charges or only to some of the charges but this, in any case, would not affect the 26/11 case in the Mumbai court as the trial has already reached its fag end.
Four months after the involvement of American terror suspect David Headley in 26/11 attacks came to light, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul Bhatt is still to come to terms with the "betrayal of faith" by the US national whom he now calls a "terror jackal" and an "absolute monster".
Investigators probing the Pune blasts are still looking for strong leads in the case despite the Centre's assertions that there is a strong David Headley link.
Top American officials have defended the controversial secret surveillance programme of the Obama administration, saying such efforts helped them to abort several terrorist attacks and nab terrorists like David Headley, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks convict.
Intelligence Bureau sleuths have unearthed yet another target of David Headley, the American national and Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative who has been arrested for carrying out terror activities on Indian soil.
In a fresh turn in the Mumbai terror attack case, the city police will approach the trial court seeking a letter rogatory to obtain evidence from a US court about alleged involvement of David Headley and Tahawwur Rana in the 26/11 attacks.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation team has arrived in New Delhi and is holding discussions with its Indian counterparts. The main focus of the discussion will revolve round the role played by both David Headley and Tawwahur Rana in the Mumbai 26/11 attack.
The former armyman -- identified as Sajid Mir -- has turned out to be Headley's handler in Pakistan and was tasking the American to learn praying like Jews so that he could conduct a recce of Jewish Centre Nariman House in Mumbai and the premises of a newspaper in Denmark, official sources said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
American national and Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror suspect David Headley had stayed in a hotel close to a Jewish centre in Pune during his visits to the Osha ashram in the city in 2008-09.
David Headley and Tawahur Rana who had surveyed several targets in Mumbai which were attacked by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba were in Pakistan at the time of the Mumbai attack, Home secretary G K Pillai said.
Seeking to clear the air over his son Rahul's connections with terror suspect David Headley, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on Friday said his family had decided to break to the police information about the contacts between the two.
A team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, headed by its chief Robert Mueller, will visit New Delhi on November 18 to investigate the Indian links of David Headley -- the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative arrested in Chicago in early October.During its two-day visit, the team will probe the US citizen's links with the LeT and also try to find out information about the terror network he allegedly set up in India, said sources.
The FBI has provided access to agents from India's domestic and external intelligence agencies to the information it has gathered on David Headley and his associate Tahawwur Husain Rana, who is also in the FBI's custody.
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.
Former Home Minister P Chidambaram said the government of India would not file formal charges against Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley until Ajmal Kasab's trial was over. Vicky Nanjappa reports
A Mumbai court on Thursday pardoned Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, who had surveyed targets for the 26/11 attacks, and made him an approver in the case, a move that may unravel the conspiracy behind the brazen terror assault.
Rana's extradition is barred under Article 6 of the United States-India extradition treaty with India because he has previously been acquitted of the offences for which extradition is sought, and under Article 9 of the Treaty because the government has not established a probable cause to believe that Rana committed the alleged offences, his attorneys argued.
In India, the anniversary of 26/11 comes and goes with only the bare minimum of remembrance. We don't even bother very much about honouring those who acted with great bravery that day, rues Vir Sanghvi.
Former interior minister Rehman Malik has termed Pakistani-American terrorist's testimony in the 2008 Mumbai attack case as "a pack of lies".
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu charged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was misused by the then United Progressive Alliance government to harass its political opponent and 'defame' the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
'The Ishrat encounter was neither genuine, nor fake. I believe it was a 'controlled killing,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Vanzara was granted bail in the encounter case involving Jahan and three others in February last year on condition that he will not enter Gujarat.