India to move for extradition of Headley from US

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India has decided to move for the extradition of US-based terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, with indications that the former may have done the recce in Mumbai for 26/11 and in New Delhi and other cities where the LeT had planned similar carnages.

Investigations have established that besides Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Agra, Headley also visited Pune and Kochi. The inclusion of Kochi is significant because of Lashkar���s plan to target tourist destinations, while Pune should ring a bell because of the intercepted email exchange between Headley and a Lashkar leader where he was told that a city close to Mumbai could be the target.

Sources in the home ministry said India would move US for extradition of Headley and Rana in January after FBI files its report against Headley in a US court. The authorities are hopeful of a positive response because Headley and Rana have been charged with using US soil to target India and Denmark.

As a step towards that end, the National Investigating Agency lodged a case against them on Wednesday evening.
The decision was taken in view of the growing belief of agencies here that Headley, who visited India several times on his US passport (097536400), provided specific details of targets to the 10 terrorists who savaged Mumbai last year.

The precision with which Ajmal Kasab and other members of the Lashkar���s gang of killers executed their macabre plan has been an abiding puzzle for investigators.

LeT man may be 26/11 missing link

Investigations show David Coleman Headley���s arrest could be particularly crucial for New Delhi, where he put up at two budget hotels, De Holiday Inn and Anand in Paharganj, the popular destination of backpackers.

Headley came to Delhi from Abu Dhabi on March 7, 2009 and utilized his three-day stay to gather details on potential targets such as the National Defence College, as brought out by FBI. The inclusion of the college, a tempting target because of the absence of any security worth speaking of, for the planned Lashkar attacks was at Headley���s insistence.

On 26/11, no sooner than the terrorists reached the Mumbai coast in an inflatable dinghy, they divided themselves five groups, each heading for specific assignments with an ease that pointed to a degree of familiarity with the targets.

Investigators never believed that this could have been possible merely with the help of the sketches drawn by Fahim Ansari or details provided by Mohammad Sabauddin, another local Lashkar accomplice. The location of Chabad House, the Jewish centre that was attacked on the fateful evening, is inconspicuous even for an average Mumbaikar.

Incidentally, when Headley was arrested, the FBI recovered from him a copy of a book ��� How To Pray Like a Jew. The swiftness with which the 26/11 terrorists took the elevator in Hotel Trident to reach the top floor where they set up a control centre, has been seen as further evidence of the briefing they must have got.

Investigators suspect that Headley might be the missing link. The FBI affidavit underscores the fact that he had an eye for detail and was capable of meticulous planning.

It mentions how the US-based Lashkar jehadi, who ditched his name Daood Gilani in 2006 for the one that he sports now, had drawn an elaborate plan to target the office of the Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten, that had published cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.

In a short visit to the newspaper���s Copenhagen office, Headley did not leave out anything which was crucial to the plot, from the nature of security and surveillance at the newspaper���s office to his getaway plan. It turns out that he may have shown the same diligence while gathering details that Lashkar used for the 26/11 atrocity.