Headley names Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, ISI in court

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  David Headley joined LeT and took his first “course” with them in 2002 at Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. File photo                 
  Acting on Mir's instructions, Headley changed his name from Dawood Gilani to David Headley. He then applied for a U.S. passport with the changed name.
  Headley testified that he wanted a changed name and new passport in order to enter India. "So that I could enter with an American name and to conceal my identity," he said deposing before special judge G.A. Sanap via video conferencing from an undisclosed location in the U.S.
  Headley also said that Mir told him to go to India and set up an office in order to settle in India. He was also told to make "a general video of the city of Mumbai."
  Accordingly, Headley came to India on eight occasions. Seven of the eight times he visited Mumbai, directly from Pakistan.
  Headley also testified to making a visa application with false details for protecting his cover in India.
  Headley recognised Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's photograph and ISI in the court.
  "Lashkar-e-Taiba is a militant organisation in Pakistan, whose goal is to fight the Indian Army and assist the people of Kashmir. They carry out all the terror activities in India, " Headley told the court.
  I joined Lashkar in 2002 for a course in Muzaffarabad, Lashkar's headquarters. I heard a speech by Hafiz Saeed saab and was motivated," said Headley during the deposition.
  Headley also testified using multiple email ids to create deception.
  LeT made two unsuccessful attempts to carry out terror attacks before finally striking in November 2008, once in September and another in October.
  He also added that the same ten people who were involved in the 26/11 attacks made two previous failed attempts on Mumbai.
  " I was arrested in Landi Kotal in FATA area of Pakistan on suspicion of being foreigner as foreigners are not allowed there. But I had a Pakistani identity card. Major Ali came to interrogate me. He is from ISI. He introduced me to Major Iqbal of ISI, because he thought I could be used in India for some intelligence work," said Headley.
  The court began recording his statement at 7.10 a.m. The deposition will continue till 12.30 pm.
  In 2010, Headley was arrested by the U.S. authorities and he confessed to them about his role in the26/11 attacks. In 2013, a U.S. court sentenced him to 35 years’ imprisonment for a dozen federal terrorism crimes related to his role in the Mumbai attacks, including conducting reconnaissance of target locations. Posing as an American, he made five extended trips to Mumbai — in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time making videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked in November 2008. After these trips he travelled to Pakistan to meet Lashkar members and hand over his surveillance material.
  Another alleged Lashkar handler Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal is also facing trial in the case. He is lodged at the Arthur Road jail.
  (With PTI inputs)
  
  

  Sajid Mir

  Lashkar-e-Taiba commander

  "Sajid Mir was a high-ranking officer in the Pakistani Army and apparently also was in the ISI."

  Who is Sajid Mir?: Born in 1976, according to documents filed to obtain his Indian visa, Mir grew up in a middle-class ethnic Punjabi home.
  
  Mir's father, according to Indian intelligence officials, earned enough working in Saudi Arabia to build a comfortable family home near Lahore airport, set up a small textile business, and put his sons through college.
  
  He married the daughter of a retired Pakistan army chaplain; the couple are thought to have two sons.

  Role in LeT: Mir was made responsible for training the growing number of western jihadists knocking on the Lashkar's doors.
  
  Fluent in English, Urdu and Arabic, he was known to the foreign jihadists as “Uncle Bill”—a reference to Mir's affable manner.

  Mir and Headley: Intense pressure by the United States led the Lashkar to shut down its camps to foreigners. Headley had arrived at Mir's camp just after the foreigners were evicted under ISI pressure — and was used to target India alone.
  
  In an intercepted September 17, 2009 phone conversation with a former Pakistani military officer and military trainer called Abdur Rehman Hashim, Headley railed against Mir who, he asserted, had "rotten guts." "I am just telling you," he lectured Hashim "that the companies in your competition have started handling themselves in a far better way."
  
  

  David Headley

  Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Taiba operative

  Who is Headley? He was born Daood Gilani. His parents — the Philadelphia socialite Serill Headley and Pakistani poet and diplomat Syed Salim Gilani — divorced soon after they moved to Islamabad in 1960. Mrs. Headley returned to Philadelphia. Headley was admitted to a boarding school, where he first met Rana, but then moved to the United States in 1977. He rebelled against his mother's heavy drinking and multiple sexual relationships by expressing a loathing for all non-Muslims.

  Marital life Apart from Shazia Gilani, records show that he was married to Faiza Outhalla, a Lahore-based medical student. Headley divorced her to evade pressure from his family and then married her again after she filed a complaint with police in Lahore that led to his incarceration for several days.He also had another bigamous marriage with a New York-based make-up artist, Portia Gilani, ich ended in divorce in 2005.

  His other life Headley married Shazia Gilani, daughter of a retired Pakistan soldier, in 1999. Ms. Gilani moved to the United States in 2008, along with their four children — Haider, Osama, Sumya and Hafsa.

  Psychological problems Evidence also emerged that Headley was diagnosed in 1992 with multiple personality disorder — a condition which includes the possession of multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs. His personal life could provide an explanation for why he sought psychological counselling..

  26/11 Mumbai attacks Viewing the terror strikes unfold in Mumbai on television, David Headley’s first wife Shazia used code words like “I am watching cartoons” to convey to him that he had “graduated”, a term she used for success of the 26/11 strikes.“I’ve been watching these cartoons (attacks) all day and I am proud of you,” Ms. Shazia wrote in an email to 50-year-old Mumbai accused during the strikes.

  David Headley arrest: Chronology of events

  
  

  • October 18, 2009: Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a resident of Chicago and an accomplice of Headley, arrested by the FBI.
  • October 27, 2009: FBI files affidavit in a Chicago court alleging that Pakistan—based terror group Lashkar—e—Taiba was planning to use Headley to carry out a major terror attack in India and Danish newspaper ‘Jyllands—Posten’
  • November 30, 2009: Tahawwur Rana categorically denies any involvement in the Mumbai attacks. The detention hearing of Headley scheduled for December 4 at a Chicago court indefinitely deferred.
  • December 7, 2009: Headley charged in a Chicago court with criminal conspiracy in Mumbai terror attacks and having links with a retired Pakistani army Major who liaised between him and terror groups including LeT and HuJI.
  • December 8, 2009: US President Barack Obama says indictment of Headley, is an “important day” in his effort to protect the people from terrorists.
  • December 9, 2009: Headley pleads not guilty before a Chicago court where he was produced. Next hearing postponed till January 12.
  • December 14, 2009: Headley turns into FBI informant to avoid death penalty. FBI says the Somnath temple in Gujarat, Bollywood stars and Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai were also the targets of LeT, which was planning to carry out strikes with the help of Headley and Rana.
  • December 29, 2009: FBI classifies arrest of Headley as its second biggest case for the year 2009.
  • January 11, 2010: The status hearing of Headley postponed till Feb 23.
  • January 15, 2010: Ilyas Kashmiri, the dreaded Pakistani terrorist, belonging to the Harakat—ul Jihad Islami, indicted in a U.S. court for the first time in connection with the plot to target the Danish newspaper.
  • January 26, 2010: Tahawwur Rana pleads not guilty to the charges of helping arrange the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and making plans for an attack on the Danish newspaper.
  • January 27, 2010: Headley pleads not guilty to all the charges of helping arrange the attack on targets in Mumbai and on the Danish paper.
  • February 23, 2010: A U.S. court adjourns till March 23 the status hearing of Headley.
  • March 18, 2010: Headley, who pleads guilty to 12-count of terror charges, including plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks at the behest of Pakistan-based LeT and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, escapes death penalty.
•  Lashkar operative David Headley said to a special Mumbai court on Monday that his Lashkar "colleague" Sajid Mir was his main contact in the terror outfit.
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  Public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam talking to media outside sessions court after video conference with 26/11 accused David Headley. Photo: Vivek Bendre