| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
CHICAGO: US justice officials on Monday charged Chicago native David Headley with helping to plot the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 170 people, including six Americans.
Headley is accused of making a series of surveillance trips to Mumbai over a period of almost two years, taking boat trips around the city's harbour to scope out landing sites for the Mumbai attackers.
The 49-year-old US citizen was arrested in October over a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that printed incendiary pictures of the Prophet Mohammed, but on Monday the Justice Department released the new, shocking charges.
He is accused of conspiring to bomb public places in India, of seeking to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, and of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India, the charge sheet said.
After agreeing to conduct surveillance for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, Headley changed his name to Daood Gilani in February 2006 to pass in India as an American who was neither Muslim or Pakistani, it said.
"He later made five extended trips to Mumbai - in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 - each time taking pictures and making videotapes of various targets, including those attacked in November 2008," the charge sheet said.
"After each trip that Headley took... he allegedly returned to Pakistan, met with other co-conspirators and provided them with photographs, videos and oral descriptions of various locations."
The November 27 attacks saw 166 people lose their lives when 10 heavily-armed Islamist gunmen stormed India's financial capital, sparking a bloody, 60-hour siege shown live on television around the world.
"This case serves as a reminder that the terrorist threat is global in nature and requires constant vigilance at home and abroad," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
"We continue to share leads developed in this investigation with our foreign and domestic law enforcement partners as we work together on this important matter."
Headley had already been accused, along with Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan, of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that published incendiary cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
He was arrested by the FBI on October 3 at Chicago O'Hare airport attempting to board a flight to Pakistan via Philadelphia.
The US Justice Department, in announcing the new charges against Headley, also charged a third man Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military, over the Danish plot.
"Abdur Rehman... allegedly played the central role in communicating with Headley and facilitating contacts with other co-conspirators in Pakistan, including members of Lashkar," the charge sheet said.
The Danish plot alleges that the men spent at least a year working with Lashkar-e-Taiba on a plan to attack the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen and Arhus dubbed the "Mickey
Mouse Project."
Headley told the FBI after his arrest that he had been working with Lashkar-e-Taiba - a Pakistan-based radical Islamic group that has long fought Indian rule in divided Kashmir - since before 2006.
He also admitted to conducting two "surveillance" trips to Denmark in January and July 2009 in which he toured the offices of the Jyllands-Posten. It was not clear if he admitted the latest charges related to the Mumbai attacks.
"This investigation remains active and ongoing," said Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
"The team of prosecutors and agents will continue to seek charges against the other persons responsible for these attacks," Fitzgerald said. - AFP/de
|
