 "From Ishrat Jehan to plot to kill Thackeray: Headley's deposition continues")
Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley today told a court that Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) wanted to eliminate late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray but the person who was assigned the job was arrested.
Since February, when Headley told a special court that Ishrat Jahan - a 19-year-old college student who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat - was an operative of terror outfit LeT, his statements have shed light on the LeT's plans and kicked up a political storm around the UPA govt's alleged mishandling of the Ishrat Jahan case.
His latest testimony - about the plot to kill to kill Thackeray - came during a cross-examination by Abu Jundal's lawyer. Jundal is an an alleged key plotter of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
"We wanted to target the chief of Shiv Sena... His name was Bal Thackeray. LeT wanted to kill him wherever a chance arose. I knew that Bal Thackeray was the head of Shiv Sena. I have no first hand knowledge but I think an attempt was made by LeT to kill Bal Thackeray," he said.
Sceptics will point out that his statement on the plot to kill Thackeray lacked details just like his statement on Ishrat Jehan being a LeT terrorist.
Headley, who has turned approver in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks case, had testified via video-link from the US in February. In his testimony he told a Mumbai court that Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, LeT's commander, had told him about a failed operation conducted in India by LeT operative Muzammil Butt, where a female operative of the terrorist organisation was killed. When Headley was given three names by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Headley chose Ishrat Jahan.
Latching on to the testimony, the ruling NDA government alleged flip-flop by the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in the Ishrat Jahan case and demanded a thorough probe into it.
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Additionally, BJP also alleged that the decision to change the affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case was taken at the "political level", adding that the decision involved the then home minister P Chidambaram, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Earlier this month, Senior BJP leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu also alleged that the CBI was misused by the UPA government to "defame" Prime Minster Narendra Modi, who was the then Gujarat Chief Minister.
"First it was Lashkar-e-Taiba's website, secondly it was David Headley's statement and thirdly it was central government affidavit in the Gujarat High Court and Gujarat Police also said it. IB has said it. In spite of all these, they changed the affidavit," Naidu said.
Some of Headley's revelations have chilling implications and might have come as a shock to Indian intelligence agencies. During his deposition in February, he revealed that the Lashkar-e-Taiba made two unsuccessful attempts to attack Mumbai.
According to Headley, the first, in September 2008, failed after the boat hit some rocks and all the weapons and explosives were lost.
A second attempt, he claimed, was made just a month later using the same crew as the first attempt. However, he did not specify how or why the second one failed as well.
During the same month, Headley revealed that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and LeT wanted to target Mumbai airport and Naval air station during the 26/11 terror attack. He also said that he had videographed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and was asked to recruit someone from the vital national agency to work for the ISI.
"Major Iqbal expressed disapproval of certain areas I had recced as targets. I felt that Major Iqbal was unhappy because Mumbai airport was not selected and included as one of the targets for the 26/11 attack," Headley told the court.
Headley testified in detail on how al-Qaeda was also interested in carrying out attacks in India after 26/11 strike.
"After the 26/11 terror attack I met Ilyas Kashmiri (of al-Qaeda) in February 2009 and he asked me to visit India again as they were also interested in carrying out terrorist activities in India. He mentioned few places like the NDC (National Defence College) which was their primary target," he said.
The revelations did not stop there, he also told a Special TADA Court that post-26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, he had surveyed sensitive military establishments in Pune.
When asked for further details, Headley said it was the Indian Army's Southern Command Headquarters.
"The intentions here were similar to the nuclear establishments (BARC). The ISI wanted to recruit military officers and get 'classified information' from them," Headley said in his deposition.