Headley spills ISI’s 26/11 beans

NEW DELHI: The exchanges between the FBI and the Indian agencies as well as preliminary details of the NIA team’s interview with David Coleman Headley point to the ISI’s direct role in the Mumbai attacks.

According to sources in the investigating agencies, Pakistan’s semi-rogue spy agency “planned and guided” the attack on Mumbai.

Sources also said the international outrage over the terror attack saw the ISI attempting to shift the blame to al-Qaeda after the Mumabi incident. There is evidence of the ISI approaching Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the attack, seeking its help to paint the Mumbai attack as a handiwork of the al-Qaeda.

Sources said the Lashkar, which attained a large terror profile after the Mumbai attack, refused to play ball with the ISI. The Lashkar felt that feigning ignorance over Mumbai could come in the way of its recruitment efforts and fund collection drive that got a boost after the Mumbai carnage. The incident had helped Lashkar establish itself as the biggest terror shop in the region.

According to investigators, Lashkar leaders, a former Pakistani military official Sheikh Abdul Rehman Saeed and Sajid Mir were the chief handlers of US based jihadis — Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana. Rana had learned of the pending Mumbai attack during a meeting with Abdur Rehman Saeed.

There is definite information that Headley and Rana had stayed in Pakistan during the Mumbai attacks and left that country a few days after the carnage. While Headley left Pakistan on December 7, Rana left a couple of days later. Their locations during the period are traced to Karachi and Lahore.

The agencies have in possession voice samples — derived from satellite and mobile phones — of those who were passing instructions to the 26/11 attackers. Mir and Saeed were arrested by Pakistan at the behest of US after the terror plot against India and Denmark was busted.

During his interrogation, Headley had told the FBI that Pakistani army officials Major Saeed, Major Iqbal, Major Sameer and Colonel Shah were involved in the planning of the 26/11 attacks.