Can't disclose Headley's statement: Shinde on Ishrat row

Government today said it cannot disclose any information given by Mumbai terror attack convict David Headley due to a pact with the US, as controversy raged on whether he had spoken about alleged terror links of Ishrat Jahan.

Asked whether the National Investigation Agency has given any report to the Home Ministry saying that Headley in his confessional statement did not take the name of Ishrat, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter June 2004, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said, 'The (NIA) report is yet to come'.

'Whatever Headley has said, it was before FBI. And we have an agreement between FBI and NIA. So, we cannot disclose it,' he told reporters here.

Shinde was replying to queries on wether Headley had in his statement to NIA during his interrogation in US custody in 2011 spoken about alleged links of Ishrat with a Pakistan-based terror group.

The Home Ministry had asked the NIA last fortnight to find out whether the girl was a terrorist following a request from Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh.