Hated India, Indians since my school was bombed in 1971: David Headley

MUMBAI: Pakistani-American LeT terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley said here on Friday that he nursed a hatred towards India and Indians since December 1971 when his school was bombed by Indian fighter planes during India-Pakistan war which saw the creation of Bangladesh.

"I have this hatred... towards Indian since December 7, 1971... When Indian planes had bombed my school... The school was destroyed and many people who worked there had died," Headley claimed on the third day of his ongoing cross-examination before Special Judge G. A. Sanap on Friday.

He was replying to the questions posed by lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan, the defence cousel for Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, one of the key plotters of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Headley was referring to the bombing of his school during the India-Pakistan war which saw the dismemberment of East Pakistan that became Bangladesh.

The childhood incident when he was barely 10 years old left such an imprint on his tender mind that Headley decided to join the Lashkar-e-Taiba later to avenge the bombing of his school.

He admitted that it was one of the reasons why he joined the LeT years later.

In another disclosure, Headley, 56, said he made attempt to organise a fund-raising programme for the Shiv Sena party and even invite the party's founder-patriarch, the late Bal Thackery to the US, but he had no plans to attack him there.

Incidentally, on February 12 he had revealed a plot to kill the late Bal Thackeray and on March 24 (Thursday) he spoke of an attack made on him (Thackeray) with the attacker caught but managed to escape from police custody.

Headley said that he was in touch with the then Shiv Sena Public Relations Officer Rajaram Rege whom he had earlier befriended in connection with the planned trip for the late Thackeray.

Though Headley never met the late Thackeray, he was open to inviting some other Sena leader after Rege informed that the senior Thackeray was old and unwell, he said.

Headley is being cross-examined by Khan via video-conferencing from an unknown location in the US where he is currently undergoing a 35-year jail sentence for the 26/11 and Denmark terror strikes.