The long arm of law is finally inching forward to catch up with the perpetrators of 26/11 mayhem in India’s financial capital. This is clear from the Globe and Mail (Canada) report that Pakistani-born Canadian citizen Tahawwur Hussain Rana (49) and his accomplice David Headley are likely to admit that they had masterminded the Mumbai terror attack at the behest of ISI. The trial begins in Chicago on May 16.
Also from the fact that Rana was arrested on October 3 for plotting to attack the Danish newspaper that published the controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in 2005. David Headley, whose real name is Daood Gilani, landed in American custody last year. He has since confessed to have travelled to India to do surveillance for the Lashkar-e-Toiba before the Mumbai terror attacks.
New court documents reveal that two terrorist operatives accused in the 2008 Mumbai massacre conspiracy are preparing to say they believed themselves to be working for Pakistani spies, the Canadian daily said in its despatch. The attack had left 160 people dead. Most of the victims were staying at two adjacent iconic hotels, which were set ablaze.
‘Rana’s trial threatens to lend an aura of credence to the suspicions of ISI complicity. According to court documents, the jury will hear the two Chicago conspirators say they believed themselves to be working for both LeT and the ISI’, the daily said.
Headley had entered into a plea bargain with FBI to escape death penalty. In his testimony to the Chicago grand jury, Headley said, ‘I also told him (Rana)… how I had been asked to perform espionage work for ISI’. Other highlight of his testimony is the admission that he had meetings with Sajid Mir and other LeT brass. His recce helped Rana enterprise later. Unlike Headley, Rana, who runs an immigration service in Chicago with offices New York and Toronto, has not offered to turn an approver.
Instead, he is trying to rescue himself by claiming that he had done what he did as ‘a Pakistani patriot’. He is also invoking Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, claiming that he was acting at the behest of the ISI and that the ISI has authority to act in India to protect Pakistan’s national interests’. Both these claims are the give aways to the Pakistan government and the ISI’s hand in Mumbai terror strike. This is bad news to the ISI chief, Shuja Pasha, who is facing summons from a New York court in a case filed by 26/11 victims. Rana’s grandstanding also punctures the Islamabad baloon that Lahore based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was responsible for 26/11.
