Now what other evidence Indian government to act against Pakistan ? Now India should stop efforts to have ‘friendship’ with enemy like Pakistan and it should act to eliminate terrorism that is originated from Pakistan ! – Editor, HJS website
At a time when Pakistan is dilly-dallying in acting decisively against the masterminds of the Phatankot attack, it received another bombshell as incarcerated Pakistani-American terrorist and 26/11 terror convict David Coleman Headley has reportedly confessed to the NIA that the Mumbai attacks were launched with Lashkar-e-Tayyeba’s Hafiz Saeed’s approval and executed with the help of Pakistan’s ISI and the Pakistan Army.
Headley is scheduled to depose, via video conference, before a Mumbai court in the second phase of the 26/11 attacks trial on Monday. Islamabad will have more than a reason to be worried, as Headley is expected to spell out more specific details than what he had given to the FBI and the deposition he had made before Illinois court in October-November 2009.
More than anything else, Pakistan — which has not delivered anything in the 26/11 case and has been extremely slow in dealing in matters relating to the Phatankot attack despite New Delhi having provided considerable evidence to Islamabad — will have a lot to explain both terror attacks.
Significantly enough, when Headley — one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will depose before a special court in Mumbai — through video conferencing from the United States — in connection with the attacks, two months after he was pardoned and made an approver in the case by the same court.
When 55-year-old Headley’s disposition before the special court in the trial of Zaibuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, as one of the key conspirators in the 26/11 attacks case, will begin at 19.00 hours (Indian Standard Time) and would go on till 0030 hours past midnight.
Talking to The Pioneer on Sunday evening, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, “This will be the first time in the judicial history that a person will be deposing before a court and giving evidence on a terror act from a foreign soil. Headley’s deposition will set a precedent for countries across the world in dealing with global terrorism.”
Official sources said that Nikam would both seek information and question Headley on the larger conspiracy, the handlers and masterminds behind the 26/11 attacks, how the Mumbai mayhem was executed and seek details about the other terror acts sponsored by Pakistan on the Indian soil over the years.
During the course of the hearing, Nikam is expecting Headley to unravel in detail the conspiracy behind 26/11 attacks on Mumbai and the chain of events leading to the dastardly terror act perpetrated by the 10 LeT terrorists from Pakistan.
At the previous hearing in the second phase of the 26/11 attacks trial held on December 10, 2015, Additional Sessions Judge GA Sanap — who presides over special cases related to terrorism, including those charged under now repealed TADA — made Headley an approver, subject to certain conditions, and granted him pardon in the 26/11 case.
“I have received the charging document filed against me in this court. It charges me with same conduct for which I was charged in the US (by the FBI). I had pleaded guilty to the charges in the US (court) and I admitted that I was participant in these charges (role 26/11 attacks),” Headley had told the special court here on that day.
Disclosing to the court that he had confessed his role through a “plea bargain” to the US Government, Headley had also told the Special court, “I accepted responsibility for my role in those offences in my plea agreement (in the US). I also agreed to make myself available as a witness in this court. I appear here ready to answer questions regarding these events if I receive a pardon from this court.”
Apart from confessing to his close links with LeT, Headley has admitted to the US investigators that he had done reconnaissance for the 26/11 attacks.
Investigations have so far revealed that Headley visited India five times between 2006 and 2008, drew maps, took video footage and did physical reconnaissance of several targets for the attacks, including the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House.
Headley had allegedly passed the vital information that he had obtained through his reconnaissance of the target for use by the 10 LeT operatives who carried out the attacks on various places in Mumbai like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels, Jewish centre Nariman House, and popular eatery Café Leopold during the November 26-29, 2008 attacks, in which 166 people were killed and 300 others injured.
The Mumbai police had made moved the special court here on October 8, seeking a joint trial of Ansari and Headley in the 26/11 case. Now with Headley turning an approver, only Jundal will be tried in the 26/11 case.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is the only accused who has so far convicted and sentenced to death in the 26/11 case. (In all 35 LeT functionaries, including Hafeez Mohammad Saeed @ Hafiz @ Hafiz Saab, Zaki-Ur-Rehaman Lakhvi, Abu Hamza and Abu Al Kama @ Amjid, were named as wanted accused in the original 26/11 trial).
Kasab was hanged to death in Pune’s Yerwada central prison on November 21, 2012. He was among the ten Pakistani terrorists who had carried out brazen attacks on Mumbai.
While nine of the ten terrorists were killed by the security forces during the attacks, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was caught alive by the police at Girgaum Chowpatty on the intervening night of November 26 and 27, 2008.
In an amended criminal complaint in the Illinois court against Headley, his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, on October 21, 2009, the FBI had given details about the reconnaissance done by Headley in India and his links with Rahul Bhatt, whom he (Headley) had befriended during his trips to India. Bhatt and his fitness instructor friend Vilas Pandurang Varak had subsequently confirmed having met Headley during his visits to India.
Given that Headley will depose before the special court as an approver, the second phase of the 26/11 trial is very crucial in view of the fact that 14,676-page supplementary chargesheet filed before Additional Metropolitan Magistrate PS Rathod, on October 16, 2012, dwells extensively upon the conspiracy hatched by LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, and others to carry out attack and the role allegedly played by Jundal in it.
The Prosecution’s case is that Jundal had taught Hindi to the lone surviving terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, and nine other fellow Pakistani terrorists who carried out the November 26-29, 2008 attacks. He also faces the charges of having given directions to two of the Pakistani terrorists holed up at Nariman House, one of the terror targets, and briefing the Pakistani terrorists about the topography of south Mumbai where the attack took place.
Jundal, who was one of the handlers in the attack, was allegedly present along with Lakvi and other conspirators at Karachi-based LET “control room”, from where the attack on Mumbai was supervised.
Source : Daily Pioneer
