Making a damaging disclosure about the direct nexus between Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the major terror outfits operating from its soil, incarcerated leT operative David Coleman Headley on Tuesday told a special court here that the ISI provided “financial, military and moral” support to the leT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, which functioned under the umbrella of United Jehadi Council.
In two other major revelations that he made on the second day of his deposition before the special court of Additional Sessions Judge GA Sanap, Headley said the leT had also planned to
target the famous Siddhi-vinayak Temple, Naval base and a conference of Indian Defence scientists scheduled to be held at Taj Hotel.
He said he had carried out reconnaissance of all the three places prior to the 26/11 attacks.
Headley also said that ISI had — long before the Mumbai terror attacks conspiracy was hatched by the leT — asked him to undertake reconnaissance of military establishments in India, develop contacts within the armed forces and recruit spies.
He said that he had come in contact with two ISI operatives, Major Iqbal and Major Ali, some time in 2006 in lahore, long after he was arrested near the Afghan border in connection with an arms smuggling case.
In his deposition on Tuesday, Headley said, “Major Iqbal wanted me to note the movement of troops in India. He wanted someone to spy on matters of military Intelligence, movement of officers. He wanted me to develop contacts with officials of Indian military forces with the purpose of gathering Intelligence,” he said.
Queried as to where he met Major Iqbal in lahore, Headley said: “I met him (Major Iqbal in a small house in lahore. “A Colonel of the Pakistani Army was also present. At that time no one was wearing uniform”.
Headley recalled that he said “yes” to whatever he was told on the various aspects of military intelligence gathering. “Major Iqbal also made inquiries about my passport, visa, training and other aspects,” he added.
In a startling disclosure, Headley identified two Indians as having helped him when he visited Mumbai for the first time in September 2006 to begin his reconnaissance of terror targets in the country’s commercial capital.
The two Indians, whom Headley identified during his second day of disposition before the special court of Additional Sessions Judge GA Sanap, were: Bashir Shaikh and Meera Kriplani.
Headley said that while Shaikh picked him up from the Mumbai airport on his first visit to Mumbai on September 14, 2006, he had stayed as a paying guest at the house of Meera Kriplani at Shyam Niwas building near Breach Candy.
Deposing before a special court here through video-conferencing from an undisclosed location in the United States, Headley confirmed that he had also worked for the ISI. “I was meeting (handlers from) both (leT and ISI)”
On the nature of relations between the ISI and leT, Headley said: “My assessment is they coordinate with each other. I do not have any direct knowledge…they coordinate the way everyone else does.”
Queried specifically about the nature of support that ISI was providing to terror outfits based in Pakistan, Headley said: “In my opinion financial, military and moral support.” When asked to specify the terror outfits he said: “Jaish, lashkar and Hizbul Mujahideen, in my opinion.”
Replying to a question posed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Headley said that leT and other terror outfits based in Pakistan had formed a United Jehadi Council, whose main intention was to engineer terror acts in India.
At one stage during the five-and-an-hour long deposition, Nikam asked Headley whether it was lakhvi who ordered all terror hits in India. “Since he heads the military wing of leT, all orders would come from him, logically,” the leT operative said.
Headley, who is currently serving 35-year sentence in a terror case in a US jail following a plea bargain that saved him from death sentence and extradition - was deposing before the special court in the trial of key conspirator of 26/11 attacks case Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, two months after he was pardoned and made an approver in the case by the same court.
Asked if it was true that his main contacts in ISI and leT were Major Iqbal and Sajid Mir respectively, Headley replied in the affirmative.
He also confirmed that he reported the details of reconnaissance of terror targets that he carried out in Mumbai to Major Iqbal and Sajid Mir.
“In November-December 2007, the leT held a meeting in Muzaffarabad (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) which was attended by (leT operatives) Sajid Mir and Abu Kahfa. At that meeting, it was decided that terror attacks would be conducted in Mumbai,” Headley recalled.
“The task of conducting recce of Taj Hotel in Mumbai was assigned to me. They (Sajid Mir and Abu Kahfa) had some information that there was going to be a meeting of Indian defence scientists at the conference hall in Taj Hotel. They wanted to plan an attack at that time,” Headley said.
Headley told the court that he had also video-graphed the second floor of Hotel Taj, as his leT handlers had told him that the terror outfit planned to target a conference of Indian defence scientists scheduled to be held there.
“They (leT) had some information about a meeting of defence scientists to be held at the conference room of the Taj,” Headley said.
“They had also made a mock up of the Taj Hotel. However, the meeting of the scientists was cancelled,” the 26/11 conspirator-turned-approver said.
When Nikam asked him as to what was the plan of leT, Headley said: “The plan was to attack Taj during the conference. However, the plan was shelved”.
Talking to mediapersons outside the court, Nikam quoted Headley having said that the leT abandoned its plan of attack on Hotel Taj during the scheduled conference of scientists for wants of arms and ammunition.
Queried if he was receiving payments from both leT and ISI - for both of whom he used to work, Headley said: “This question does not arise”.
On the role of leT founder Hafiz Saeed, he said: “He is the spiritual leader of lashkar”.
When Nikam wanted to know if he had met Colonel Shah of ISI and Brigadier Riyaz, Headley said: “I have met Colonel Shah once. But, I never met Brigadier Riyaz”.
Headley recalled that Major Ali of ISI, whom he had met in landi Kotal jail along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border (when he was arrested in an arms smuggling case at Peshwar in 2003) was different from Major Sameer Ali.
When Nikam sought some details about Major Sameer Ali, Headley said: “He was from Pakistan Army, the ISI, that’s what he told me ...He told me he was from lahore”.
Asked if Brigadier Riyaz was the ISI handler of leT chief of operations Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi, Headley said: “I saw it on a TV production that he was handler of lakhvi…I heard from other people….I don’t know about him, how he looks, whether he is serving or not”.
On whether he knew anything about Al Qaeda, Headley said: “Yes. I know, it is designated as a terror organisation by the US, banned by Pakistan as well.”
Asked to specify Major (Retd) Abdul Rehman Pasha’s link with the Al Qaeda, Headley said: “He left laskhar to join the Al Qaeda. That’s what he told me”.