Mumbai, Nov. 14: David Coleman Headley personally visited every target site of the 26/11 terror strikes last year, carrying out a recce on behalf of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, a police source said today.
Posing as a Jew, he even visited Nariman House, the Jewish Chabad centre, in July 2008.
The Mumbai police today carried out raids in Bandra, its adjoining suburb Khar and BPO hub Goregaon in search of Headley’s local acquaintances and contacts.
“He (Headley) mapped the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, Taj and Trident hotels and Nariman House. We are interrogating (filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son) Rahul to find out when he went to Leopold Café. That he did is certain — when he did that is what we need to know,” a top officer said.
Headley had visited the Mumbai home of Rahul, who contacted police after learning of the terror suspect’s arrest by America’s Federal Burau of Investigation (FBI) last month.
The source said Headley, a Pakistani-born US national, and his associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana stayed in Hotel Outram, a seedy motel in Mumbai’s Fort area, for about a fortnight in July 2008.
Born Daood Gilani, Headley, who changed his name and passport in 2006, posed as a Jewish American during his Mumbai stay. A source close to Rahul too confirmed that Headley had claimed to be a Jew.
“It is a mystery how he got into that building (Nariman House) just posing as a Jew. We are probing if he had anybody helping him locally. The FBI seized a book called How to Pray Like a Jew from him at the time of his arrest in Chicago. He had prepared himself thoroughly to pose as a Jew,” the officer said.
Read more at Telegraph India.
Apparently, India has contacted Canadian officials about information on a Pakistani who provided the money for Headley's travels.."India needs Canada's assistance because Tahawwur Rana is a Canadian citizen of Pak origin. His retrieved passport shows it was issued in Ottawa in 2006. In Headley's case- he travelled to Copenhagen twice in 2009. His trips in January and July were arranged and funded by Rana. The two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives were plotting to strike a Danish newspaper in Copenhagen along side a terror plot in India." (from Times Now India article.)
Posted by: J.S. | November 16, 2009 at 11:26 PM