 "26/11 case: David Headley says ready to depose if he receives pardon")
Defence experts on Thursday dubbed the 26/11 terror attack as an 'act of war against India' by Pakistan, adding that post David Headley's deposition, there would be huge pressure on the Pakistan Government and the army to act firmly against terror modules on its soil, as also reworking strategies with regard to India.
"The revelations made by Headley indicate that the entire operation was planned and masterminded and executed by the Pakistani Army and the ISI. It was an act of war against India. However, the final implementation was carried through the LeT, so as to indicate to India and to the world that it was non-state actors who did this. In actuality, it was the state actors, the Pakistani Army which actually launched the military operation against India," Major General (retired) P.K. Sehgal told ANI.
"Pakistan is watching, thanks to modern connectivity. The Pakistani people, judiciary, Pakistani media as well as the international media and the international audience are pulling to what has been deposed. India has also told Pakistan that if they so desire, they can see the deposition for themselves, even if they wish to interact with Headley. How Pakistan will get out of it is something that is seen to believe. The evidence is so clinching that the pressure on Pakistan is going to be huge from everywhere," he added.
Sehgal further stated that evidence by Headley is critically important as it brings for the fact that at every point of time Headley had the backing of the ISI.
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"It was the officers of the ISI, who were completely funding him. They constantly kept him sending money in fake currency. They are the ones who also introduced him to Rana, who he met in Chicago, and how Rana and he came to Bombay several times and opened an office in Tardeo," he said.
Resonating similar sentiments, another defence expert Qamar Agha said, "We know for quite some time that Pakistan was involved in these activities. We also understand that Headley works for the ISI. The ISI had sent him to LeT and then he worked for both the establishments. He was receiving funds from the ISI as well as from the LeT to conduct this operation. His testimony becomes important because he is giving it in a court of law in India."
Agha stated that now the Pakistani Army establishment as well as the government stands exposed in the national community.
Now, it's up to the international community to see how Pakistan establishment acts," he added.
Headley, told a special Mumbai court earlier today that Ishrat Jahan, the 19-year-old girl who was killed in an alleged 'fake encounter' in 2004, was affiliated to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
While deposing before the court via video link from an undisclosed spot in the United States, Headley said that there was a women's wing in the LeT.
Deposing before the court, Headley claimed that the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi told him about a botched up operation of Muzammil in India.
"The operation was about shooting the police at some naka. One woman LeT named Ishrat Jahan was involved. Muzammil Bhatt was the head of our group before Sajid Mir," he told the court.
He, however, denied the involvement of any woman suicide bomber in the LeT but later named Ishrat Jahan as an LeT operative.
