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India's 26/11,
many other sinister plots hinge on David, Rana
WSN Network
 New
Delhi: Pakistan-born American national, David Coleman Headley is
accused of having links with the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba. He
had changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 to David Coleman
Headley.
Headley was
arrested in the US last month (October) by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force at O'Hare International
Airport before boarding a flight to Philadelphia, intending to
travel on to Pakistan.
He was held for
plotting terror attacks on behalf of the LeT against India and on
charges of plotting a terror attack against the facilities and
employees of the Danish newspaper which had published cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
Forty-nine-year-old Headley is currently in custody in the US. The
probe to figure out Headley's role in planning the Mumbai terror
attacks took off after Indian intelligence officials obtained "good
leads" from their American counterparts
According to the
FBI affidavit filed in a
Chicago
court, Headley was in close contact with Ilyas Kashmiri and several
unidentified leaders of Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Kashmiri is the
operational chief of Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir
section of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI), a Pakistani-based
terrorist organisation with links to al-Qaeda. Kashmiri, who is
presently believed to be in
Pakistan's
restive Waziristan tribal region, issued a statement this month that
he was alive and working with al-Qaeda.
Who Is Rana?
Headley's
accomplice, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, is a Canadian citizen of
Pakistani origin and has also been named in the case of the now
foiled terror attacks plotted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The suspect is
also goes by the name Tahawar Rana and was a resident of Chicago,
US.
Rana is the
owner of several businesses, including First World Immigration
Services, which has offices on Devon Avenue in Chicago, as well as
in New York and Toronto.
Rana reportedly
told FBI during his interrogation that the Lashkar-e-Toiba planned
attacks on National Defence College in New Delhi, two high-profile
boarding schools in northern
India
and tourist destinations frequented by foreigners ahead of 26/11
anniversary.
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Rana tried to
cheat Pak consul in Chicago
WSN Network
MUMBAI:
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the Pakistani-Canadian operative of the
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba now in the Federal Bureau of Investigation
custody in the US, tried to deceive the Pakistani Consul General
in
Chicago
to get a visa for his partner, US citizen David Coleman Headley.
An affidavit
filed by the FBI before a
US
court revealed this, following Rana's arrest on October 18 this
year.
The 47-page
document detailed how Rana under the guise of running an
immigration service, had been working for Pakistan-based LeT
handlers and al-Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri. Rana had
influence over the Pakistani Consul General, as they went to the
same high school. The diplomat also knew Headley as Rana's
friend.
The FBI
affidavit said "on or about" September 25, Rana called the
diplomat to get a five-year visa for Headley. But since the
diplomat knew Headley by his original name, Daood Gilani, Rana
said he wanted the visa for a white American.
When the
diplomat asked Rana to send his friend over, Rana said since "he
had sent his friend elsewhere ...someone else will visit the
consulate".
Investigations also revealed that Rana and a woman, identified
as Samraz Rana Akhtar, obtained multiple-entry visas from the
Indian Consulate a month before the November 26, 2008 attack in
Mumbai, despite strict home ministry rules in this respect.
What's more,
they were exempted from registering with the police here if
their stay did not exceed 180 days. Both of them arrived in
Mumbai on November 12, 2008 and travelled to Kochi, Kerala four
days later.
On November
20, Rana left India. But Gujarat police later found that an
advertisement was carried in an English newspaper in the state
in November 18 and 19, seeking applications from those who
aspired to work abroad. The advertisement was issued on behalf
of Rana's First World Immigration Services. |
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NIA combing
for more, 20 on its radar
WSN Network
NEW DELHI:
More than 20 people are on the radar of the National
Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the activities of the two
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operatives, David Coleman Headley and
Tahawwur Rana, in India.
Intelligence
agencies have told the NIA the two were in touch with nearly 24
people, many of them in Mumbai. Rahul Bhatt, son of film-maker
Mahesh Bhatt, was one of them.
The agencies
have also told the home ministry that the Headley, a US citizen,
and Rana, a Canadian citizen -- both of Pakistani origin -- were
in Pakistan around the time of 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. Rana was
in India last November days before the attacks and Headley had
flown in on eight occasions by then. His last visit was around
June this year.
While the
NIA is looking for evidence to seek their extradition and put
them on trial, agencies are trying to figure if their Pakistan
visit in November 2008 was more than a coincidence.
"Our focus
is to find out as many people as possible who came in contact
with the two and get as much information ...and identify the
sleeper cells they were in contact with," a government official
said.
"...We are
speaking to them ... asking them to remember every conversation
that they have had with them," a home ministry official said.
Film targeted, Rahul asked to stay in Mumbai
Some
Mahagujarat Janshakti Party (MJP) supporters have been
protesting against screening of Mahesh Bhatt’s movie Tum Mile,
following his son Rahul Bhatt’s alleged links with US terror
suspect David Coleman Headley.
The NIA has
asked Rahul not to leave Mumbai. Three others, who were also in
contact with Headley, have also been asked to stay put in
Mumbai. |
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18
November 2009
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