American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley’s video deposition in the U.S. before an Indian special court interviewing him from Mumbai has re-fuelled the controversy over the antecedents of Ishrat Jehan who was gunned down in a purported encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad back in 2004.
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Headley told the court that Abdul Rehman Pasha, a former Pakistan army major who joined LeT and later Al Qaeda, told him that the action taken by Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency against Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed and other LeT members are “superficial”.
A LeT woman operative was involved, Headley sais while identifying her as Thane college student Ishrat Jahan, out of the three names – Noorjehan Begum, Ishrat Jahan and Mumtaz Begum – given by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.
The Express Tribune reported that Malik, who was interior minister when Mumbai attack occurred, accused India of trying to defame Pakistan by concocting confessions out of Headley.
“The deposition on my part has ended, but I will be present at the cross-examination to raise objections if the need arises”, Nikam said. Also, Major Iqbal gave me counterfeit Indian currency once or twice in 2008, he said.
“When he heard the three, he said that he had heard the name of Ishrat Jahan and that she was killed in a police encounter”.
The police claimed that the four were LeT operatives plotting to assassinate the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
Headley, appearing from an undisclosed location via video conferencing, continued to spill the beans on LeT involvement with the 26/11 terror attacks.
There are some, who even see a bigger conspiracy in Headley’s statements but, the bigger question is, when our political class trusted Headley over his ISI & Pak army revelations, can his revelations about Ishrat be rejected as an outlandish claim by a double agent. “After I returned to Pakistan, I gave those wrist bands to Sajid Mir and explained to him that practising Hindus in India wear this and hence, it would be a good idea if the ten gentlemen (attackers) also wear it as it would look like they are Hindus”, he said. All I want to day is that what others say does not matter.
Headley, who recced terror targets on multiple visits to India before the 26/11 attack, also said that he had feared arrest on the one occasion he came to the country after the attack.
Prior to November 2007, he said, the targets in Mumbai had not been decided.
“Iqbal told me that if Rana was reluctant to be associated with this (Headley’s India operations) then he (Headley) should appeal to his (Rana’s) sense of patriotism towards Pakistan”, he testified. Stating that probe had proved the encounter fake, she said “a terrorist” can not be trusted.
Later, in January 2009, Major Iqbal told Headley to close down his office in India, the court was told.
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Headley also claimed to have discouraged the terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (to which he belongs), and the ISI from striking at the famed Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Dadar and the naval air station in the city.
