David Headley's deposition adjourned till tomorrow due to technical snag
Mumbai: The deposition of American-Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley was adjourned till Thursday due to a technical snag in the video conference.
Headley was to depose for the third consecutive day before a court here in connection with 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case. He is being examined as an approver in the case.
"Today Headley was supposed to give evidence through video link. But unfortunately, on account of technical problems from American side, they could not contact us and now it has been informed to us that the matter will be adjourned till tomorrow," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.
Read: ISI funds LeT & JeM: David Headley tells Mumbai court
"It was also agreed by American side that they are ready to sit for more than one-and a half hour and it appears that till tomorrow the technical problem should be resolved," he added.
Nikam confirmed that there was no technical problem from the Indian side.
"In spite of the efforts of the American experts, they could not contact us through video link and therefore, the hearing of Headley is adjourned till tomorrow," he said.
Nikam added that the hearing tomorrow would take place from 7 am to 1:30 pm.
"We have to take into consideration the time schedule of America. We hope and anticipate the American side would be successful in repairing the technical problem and we will be in a position to pursue our case from tomorrow onwards," he said.
The deposition, initially planned till February 12, may extend for some more time.
Deposing from an undisclosed location on Tuesday, Headley told the special judge G A Sanap that he was working for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, which he said gave financial, military and moral support to LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Read: Was working for ISI, met many people from Pakistan army: David Headley
Answering a question by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Headley admitted that he had worked for the ISI besides Lashkar, and that he knew about ISI official Brig. Riyaz being the handler of LeT’s top commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind behind the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. He also said that during his stay in Pakistan, Col. Shah, Lt. Col. Hamza, Maj. Samir Ali, Maj. Iqbal and retired Army officer Abdul Rehman Pasha, who was closely working with LeT and al-Qaeda, were among the ISI personnel who were coordinating with him.
Read: 26/11 terror attacks: India to give Pakistan Headley dossier
Headley also told the court that he had done surveillance of key locations in Mumbai like the Naval Air Station, the Siddhivinayak temple and the state police headquarters on Lashkar’s instructions. He also deposed on the operations planned by LeT in Mumbai prior to 26/11, adding these were not executed for various reasons. One such plan was to attack a conference hall in the Taj Mahal Hotel during a meeting of Indian defence scientists. But this was called off as the LeT could not arrange the logistics for it.
Headley said he was specifically asked to survey the Siddhivinayak temple as a target. He also said the Naval Air Station and the Maharashtra state police headquarters were among the planned targets, but these plans were not executed. The recording of Headley’s evidence will continue on Wednesday.
Read: David Headley wanted to fight against Indian Army in Kashmir, says Public Prosecutor
Headley said he had visited Mumbai for the first time in 2006, but then he was not given any specific targets to survey, and only asked to take general videos and pictures of different places in Mumbai. “To set up office and make my cover authenticated so that I could stay there (in Mumbai) and I could do surveillance,” he said.
“I did surveillance of multiple targets as well as selected landing sites,” Headley added. According to Headley, a meeting was held between him, Abu Kahafa and Sajid Mir at LeT’s headquarters in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was sometime in November or December 2007, when Headley was tasked with doing surveillance at the Taj, and specifically at the convention hall (conference hall) on the second floor as they had information that a conference of defence scientists was going to be held there soon. But this plan was later cancelled. When prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked him the exact reason why the plan was cancelled, Headley said it was mostly due to “logistical problems”, which he later meant getting the necessary personnel and weapons.
Read: Was inspired by Hafiz Sayeed's speeches, reveals David Headley
He also did surveillance at the Oberoi Hotel and the entire stretch of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg in Colaba, where Leopold Café (one of the places hit in the 26/11 attacks) is located, as well as Chabad House (Nariman House), another actual target on November 26, 2008.
The LeT operative also said he had been asked by the ISI to recruit Indian Army personnel to spy for them. Headley told special judge G.A. Sanap: “I met Maj. Iqbal of ISI in Lahore in early 2006. He asked me to gather military intelligence from India and also try to recruit someone from the Indian military to spy. I told Maj. Iqbal I would do as he asked.”
Read: From Daood Gilani to David Coleman Headley: A timeline
Another ISI officer, Samir Ali, also wanted him to do some intelligence work in India, Headley told the court. On Abdul Rehman Pasha, Headley said he met the retired Pakistan Army officer in early 2003 at a Lahore mosque. “When I first met Pasha he was with LeT. At that time he had no relations with al-Qaeda, but may be after two years, he left LeT to join al-Qaeda,” he said.
On his links with Jaish-e-Mohammed’s founder Masood Azhar, Headley said: “I know Maulana Masood Azhar as I saw him once in October 2003. He is the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed. In October 2003, there was a gathering of LeT and he was a guest speaker there.”
