Headley also told the court that after 26/11 attacks, he was continuously in touch with LeT’s Sajid Mir and was concerned about the safety of Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.
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Prodded by Nikam for details about the operation, Headley said, There was a female wing in LeT, which was headed by one Abu Aimans mother.
Headley, however, denied the involvement of any woman suicide bomber but later named Ishrat Jehan as an LeT operative.
Asked whether he was following the 26/11 terror attacks, he said: “From news, I came to know that one of them was captured…from news, I got to know that he was Ajmal Kasab”.
He said he had videographed BARC at Trombay in Mumbai in July 2008 and that LeT had asked him to recruit some employee of BARC who would work for ISI.
Headley was quoted as saying by NDTV, “Major Iqbal said in future I should recruit for the ISI people from BARC who collect classified information”.
Questioning the relevance of revelations made by Headley in his deposition, Ishrat Jahan’s family’s lawyer Vrinda Grover (in pic) asked how her antecedents could clear the officials implicated in fake encounter case.
The Ahmedabad police claimed that the slain persons were Lashkar’s suicide bombers and were in the city to kill Narendra Modi, the then chief minister.
The Union Home minister said India wants to become world leader but not by frightening or threatening anyone. “The IB has nothing to do with the actions taken by the police”, he said. Headley also told the court that Muzammil Butt was the head of his (Headley’s) group before Sajid Mir.
“A battery of Congress leaders were lined up who went on giving statements there are evidences (against BJP leaders), there are conversations happening, there are people who said the man with white beard and black beard”.
Headley’s testimony on Thursday was followed by the BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma attacking the Gandhis and describing the policemen being prosecuted for the encounter as “jaanbaz sipahi (brave soldiers)”. “Rather, we want to take everyone along so that the world could take inspiration from India”, he said.
David Coleman Headley’s deposition over the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack entered its fifth day on Saturday.
“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.
Congress sought to dismiss BJP demands for an apology in the wake of David Headley’s claims that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative, insisting that the “fundamental question” was whether she and her accomplices were killed in fake encounter. “Since when has BJP started believing terrorists?”
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He had purchased four other books – “Royal Rajasthan”, “India’s Jewish Heritage”, “The Grand Trunk Road” and “Polo In India” – but the army book was of great interest to him, he said.
