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Headley says ISI aided 26/11: Report

‘Had scouted Delhi for targets’ New Delhi/London: Pakistani-American terror suspect David Headley has told Indian investigators that he had scouted Delhi for potential strike targets, including the Prime Minister's residence and key defence complexes, four months after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which Pakistan's ISI had a major role to play. Headley, who has confessed his role in plotting the Mumbai attack with the LeT and was arrested last year in the US, told a team of Indian interrogators in a Chicago prison that he was in New Delhi in March 2009, said sources familiar with the case but who spoke only on condition they were not identified. During his Delhi trip, Headley videographed 7 Race Course Road, the PM’s official residence, and defence complexes - Raksha Bhavan, and the National Defence College in the heart of the capital, the sources disclosed. — IANS

London, October 19
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in preparations for the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, according to classified Indian government documents. According to a 109-page report obtained by The Guardian, key suspect David Headley revealed during questioning that the Pakistani-American terrorist described dozens of meetings between ISI officers and senior Lashkar-e-Toiba militants.

The newspaper said that Headley’s interrogation report says that he claimed that a key motivation for the ISI in aiding the attacks was to bolster militant organisations with strong links to the Pakistani state and security establishment who were being marginalised by more extreme radical groups.

“Headley, who undertook surveillance of the targets in Mumbai for the operation, claims that at least two of his missions were partly paid for by the ISI and that he regularly reported to the spy agency. However, the documents suggest that supervision of the militants by the ISI was often chaotic and that the most senior officers of the agency may have been unaware at least of the scale and ambition of the operation before it was launched,” the report said.

“Under questioning, Headley described dozens of meetings between officers of the main Pakistani military intelligence service, the ISI, and senior militants from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group responsible for the Mumbai attacks", the report said. According to the report, European and American security services now feared that the LeT was moving from what has been a largely regional agenda focused on Jammu and Kashmir to a global agenda involving strikes against the west or western interests. “The documents suggest the fierce internal argument within the organisation over its strategic direction is being won by hardliners,” the report added. Headley reportedly described how a debate had begun among the terrorist outfits and a clash of ideology leading to “splits”.

Headley told the investigators that the ISI hoped the Mumbai attacks would slow or stop growing integration between groups active in Jammu and Kashmir, with whom the agency had maintained a long relationship, and the Taliban-based outfits in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which were a threat to the Pakistani state. — PTI