Mumbai: Pakistan’s spy agency ISI provides financial, moral as well as military support to terror outfits like the LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, said David Coleman Headley while revealing more information in the Mumbai court with regard to the 26/11 terror attacks.
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who took the examination of the Pakistani-American terrorist, said, “David Headley has given certain sensitive revelations. Firstly, he disclosed his close association with the ISI and said that he was working for them also.”
“He said that he knew Brigadier Riaz, Colonel Shah. He also said that he knew Lieutenant Colonel Hamza and Major Samar Ali,” Nikam added.
Nikam further said Headley in his testimony confirmed that the ISI and LeT have a close nexus with each other.
“I did ask him on what grounds he was saying that. He said the ISI provides financial, moral as well as military support to the LeT,” he said.
The public prosecutor said that Headley, in his examination through video conferencing from an undisclosed location in the United States, said that during his continuous visit to Mumbai, he surveyed various places like the CST Railway Station as well as the Naval airbase, police headquarter building, Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi and Siddhivinayak Temple.
“Clearing my query as to why did he video graph the second floor of Hotel Taj, he said that LeT wanted to attack on the particular day when the Indian Scientist Conference was going to be held,” Nikam said.
He however, said that they were not successful in implementing their plan as they could not get the weapons in time.
Continuing his deposition for the second consecutive day, Headley said that he was asked by the ISI to recruit Indian army men to spy for them.
Headley said that he also advised the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack, Hafiz Saeed, and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi to ‘legally challenge’ the US ban on Lashkar.
Headley testified for over five hours yesterday and described the role of ISI officers in collaborating with the Lashkar for the terror attack, which left 166 people dead in Mumbai.
In his first deposition yesterday, Headley said that Pakistani terrorists attempted to attack Mumbai twice before the 26/11 strike but failed both times.
Describing himself as a ‘true follower’ of the LeT, he also admitted that he joined the ranks of LeT after getting ‘influenced and motivated’ by the speeches of Hafiz Saeed. (ANI)