David Coleman Headley, a US national, is deposing in a Mumbai court via video link on the 2008 attack as a witness for the prosecution.
Highlights
- Arrest of LeT commander Zaki ur Rehman was superficial: David Headley
- Headley also revealed code names used to communicate with LeT handlers
- Today is Day 5 of Headley's video testimony as a witness in 26/11 attacks
Terrorist David Coleman Headley on Saturday revealed in court that the arrest of Lashkar commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi in Pakistan was "only superficial" and the terror outfit's founder Hafiz Saeed would not be harmed, his handler Sajid Mir had told him.
Headley also revealed the codes he used to communicate with his handlers in terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba. "Old Uncle," he said was the code name for
Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people. Lakhvi, Headley said, was code named "young uncle."
David Coleman Headley, a US national, is deposing in a Mumbai court via video link on the 2008 attack as a witness for the prosecution. The name of Lashkar operative Abu Jundal, against whom Headley had turned approver, did not come up as the prosecution concluded its examination today. The defence will now ask Headley questions on a future date, which has not yet been decided.
Headley identified the voices of handlers Abu Qafa, Abu Al Qama and Sajid Mir in the control room at Karachi after taped conversations between the three handlers and terrorists at the
Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai were played out in court.
Over the last week, Headley identified Saeed and Lakhvi as key plotters of the deadly terror attack and revealed details on how
Pakistan's spy agency the ISI collaborated with the Lashkar. His main handler and his link with the Lashkar in Pakistan, Sajid Mir, had once sent Headley an email that said, "Uncle is flying high."
The terrorist and his handlers used the code "H1 virus" to safely talk about investigations because the H1N1 flu had affected people in several parts of India at that time, Headley revealed in his deposition.
Headley, who recced terror targets on multiple visits to India before the terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008, also said that he had feared arrest on the one occasion he came to the country after the 26/11 attack. He had even sent a "will" to his Canadian associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana.