US authorities today filed charges against David Headley for his involvement in the planning and execution of the November 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai. According to a US Department of Justice press release, he
“was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots, and to provide material support to Lashkar, and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India.”
David Headley was arrested in Chicago on October 3, 2009. It has since been revealed that he visited India on several occasions for almost two year prior to the November 2008 attacks. His purpose was to scout for possible targets and create a plan of action. The press release further mentions that,
“after each trip that Headley took to India between September 2006 and July 2008, he allegedly returned to Pakistan, met with other co-conspirators and provided them with photographs, videos and oral descriptions of various locations. In March 2008, Headley and his co-conspirators discussed potential landing sites for a team of attackers who would arrive by sea in Mumbai, and he was instructed to take boat trips in and around the Mumbai harbor and take surveillance video, which he did during his visit to India starting in April 2008.”
A FBI team is currently visiting India to provide Indian authorities information about the activities of Headley and his associate Tahawwur Rana.
Interestingly, charges have also been filed against Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani army, for collaborating on planning attacks in Denmark. If the FBI is successful in proving these links, it would help add more substance to India’s repeated claims of the Pakistani army and ISI’s direct involvement with terrorists.
