Headley, Rana unmasked Lakhvi as 26/11 plotter

Tribune News Service

 

New Delhi, December 29

 

India is angered at a Pakistan court allowing bail to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) as there is clinching evidence against him for having plotted, planned and masterminded the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that left 166 persons dead.

 

Lakhvi's associates Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Gilani, lodged in a Chicago prison, had testified in a US court about Lakhvi and his role in overall planning of the attacks, making him the most important man in the attacks.

A US court in the state of Illinois has charged Rana and Headley and laid bare the nexus of the LeT in attacking India.

"Headley became acquainted with a senior member of Lashkar, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ("Zaki"), who was responsible for Lashkar's military operations" the US court had ruled in 2011.

Headley was anxious to be assigned to an operational assignment in Kashmiri, but Zaki told Headley he was saving him for a different assignment and was attached to Sajid Mir (another suspect in the case).

It was Lakhvi who okayed that Headley use his name 'David Coleman Headley' instead of Daood Gilani to avoid suspicion when Headley travelled five times to Mumbai on his American passport for which he was eligible being born in the US to a woman of the same country.

Lakhvi advised him to feed in the GPS coordinates of various sites to be attacked. The coordinates where then feed into hand held GPS of the ten-armed gunmen who sailed on a hijacked boat to launch simultaneous attacks on Mumbai.

Lakhvi was the one who chose the landing site in front of the Taj Mahal hotel (one of places attacked that night on November 26, 2008) and even overruled others who suggested that it could expose the terrorists.

He advised Headley to return to Mumbai and conduct additional surveillance of potential landing sites. Lakhvi hired boats for the 10 terrorists, who made two aborted attempts to attack Mumbai in September and October 2008. Again it was Lakhvi, who decided that an Indian owned fishing vessel was to be hijacked mid-sea to avoid suspicion.

At the time of the attacks, Lakhvi was the operational head of the banned (LeT) that has been accused by India of carrying out the attacks in India's financial capital. In December 2008, the United Nations Security Council committee looking into sanctions on Al-Qaeda and Taliban added the name of Lakhvi to its list of terrorist and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

• Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley, lodged in a Chicago prison, had testified in a US court about Lakhvi's involvement in planning the Mumbai attacks
• He advised Headley to go to Mumbai and conduct additional surveillance of potential landing sites
• Lakhvi asked Headley to use 'David Coleman Headley' instead of Daood Gilani, his real name, to avoid suspicion during travel to Mumbai