David Headley has also told a Mumbai court that his father was aware of his links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Highlights
- David Coleman Headley's father was former DG of Radio Pakistan
- Headley said his father was aware of his association with LeT
- Headley's half-brother worked at then Pakistan PM Gilani's office
Yusuf Raza Gilani, who was then Pakistan's Prime Minister, had visited
David Coleman Headley's home not long after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the Lashkar terrorist told a Mumbai court today.
Headley said Mr Gilani had paid a condolence visit to their home a few weeks after his father, a famous radio broadcaster, had died. Headley's father, Sayed Salim Gilani, died on December 25, 2008, a month after 10 Pakistani terrorists attacked Mumbai killing 166 people.
David Headley is serving a 35-year-prison term in the US for his role in the terror attack. He had recced the famous Mumbai landmarks that the terrorists struck and today told the court that he wanted to inflict "maximum loss and damage" on India and Indians.
Headley also said today that his father, a well-known poet and author, was aware of his
links with the dreaded Lashkar-e-Taiba. However, he said, his half-brother Danyal Gilani, who worked as a public relations officer at PM Gilani's office, did not know of his terror links.
When Headley had first told a US court about the Pakistani Prime Minister's visit to their home after his father's death, Danyal Gilani had in a statement clarified that the family had little association left with David Headley, who was born Daood Gilani but changed his name to David Headley on instructions from the Lashkar to make it easier for him to enter India.
David Headley's mother was American. He schooled in Pakistan and moved to the US as a teen.
The terrorist told the Mumbai court today that he
hated India and Indians since childhood because his "school was bombed on December 7, 1971. My school was destroyed and the people who worked there died."
The reference was to the India-Pakistan war fought in December 1971. Headley, now 55, would have been 11 then.
Headley was arrested in 2009 in the US. He is being cross-examined after testifying in the Mumbai court. He turned prosecution witness last December in exchange for a pardon.