News

26/11: LeT had plans of attacking Indian defence scientists, Headley says

by IBNS 08 Feb 2016, 06:44 pm

Mumbai, Feb 9 (IBNS) Deposing before a Mumbai court for the second consecutive day, 26/11 Mumbai attack conspirator David Headley revealed that Lashkar-e-Toiba's original plan was to attack a meet of Indian defence scientists, two years prior to the actual attack, according to reports.

Headley, who has been testifying via video conferencing from an undisclosed location from the US, had earlier spoken about his handler Sajid Mir. He had saidon Monday that it was on Mir's request that he changed his name.

On Tuesday, he was quoted as saying by NDTV, "They had information about some meeting of Indian defence scientists in the conference hall off the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and they wanted to attack it... It was decided that I should go to India."

Speaking about his role, "In this meeting, they assigned me the task of conducting recce of Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai," Headley said.

Headley has given out a chunk of information over his two day quiz. On Mondayhe had identified Hafeez Saeed as the mastermind and leader of LeT and also said that he trained under Saeed and Lakhavi.

Speaking to the court, Headley revealed how he came under Saeed's influence and his journey began on 2002.

Dawood Gilani aka David Coleman Headley, was born in Pakistan. Now 55, he was 18 when he moved to the US and is a convict of the state.

He was arrested from the Chicago Airport in 2009 for his alleged connection with the Mumbai attack.

He is presently serving jail term in the US.

The attack claimed 166 lives.