I filmed boundary of PM's residence, claims Headley

NEW DELHI: US-born Lashkar terrorist David Headley has told interrogators from the National Investigation Agency that he filmed the outer boundary of the Prime Minister’s residence (7, Race Course Road) during his last trip to Delhi in March 2009 but found the security too tough to break through. His claim was, however , disputed by official sources here.

According to Headley’s statement to interrogators, Delhi escaped a major terror attack last year when an LeT terrorist from Rawalpindi in Pakistan, who tried to come in through the legal channel, was denied an Indian visa.

The terrorist was supposed to be in Delhi to carry out an attack on the National Defence College at Tees January Marg — a target recommended by Headley to his bosses on the basis that a strike on the institution would have killed more Indian Army officers than those who died in all Indo-Pak wars put together.

Headley had earlier disclosed in detail how Pakistan’s ISI had been behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and made plans for other terror strikes in Delhi, Pune, Goa and Pushkar in due course.
ISI paid for at least two of Headley’s recce missions

New Delhi: In his statement to the National Investigation Agency, David Coleman Headley essentially repeated what he had earlier told the US’s FBI. As already known, Headley had recceed several targets in the Capital — the Sena Bhawan, Raksha Bhawan , vice-president’s residence, Israeli embassy and Chabad House in Paharganj area.

Besides, the American terrorist had also disclosed in detail how the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI had been behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and made plans for other terror strikes in Delhi, Pune, Goa and Pushkar in due course. Headley told the NIA that when on mission, “he used to record images of potential targets on two memory sticks — one for Lashkar and the other for ISI”.

“Abdur Rehman (Lashkar operative) told me thsat a man from Rawalpindi was ready to carry out the attack (in Delhi) but he had trouble to get visa for India,” the NIA interrogation report quoted Headley as saying about the LeT’s Delhi mission.

Referring to Rehman, Headley explained that the Rawalpindi man’s visa application was turned down because “he had a long beard”. “Abdur Rehman told him to shave his beard and he had reapplied for visa,” the report said quoting Headley. During his interrogation, Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani, also disclosed Rehman’s network in Nepal, which was activated to help the Rawalpindi man once he would reach Delhi for his mission.

According to other details of his interrogation report — published in British daily, ‘The Guardian’ — Headley, who travelled to Mumbai and stayed there for his surveillance mission, claimed that “at least two of his missions were partly paid for by the ISI and that he regularly reported to the spy agency”.

He had described in details “dozens of meetings between officers of ISI, and senior militants from the Lashker-e-Taiba group, who were responsible for the Mumbai attacks”.