Mumbai:
The last visit of American terror suspect David Headley, before being arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to India in March this year was to finalise synchronised terror strikes on Jewish houses located in five cities at the instance of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Piecing together the travel trail of Headley during his visit to India in March this year, security agencies, who were briefed by FBI and US Department of Justice officials in New Delhi recently, are understood to have concluded that the US terror suspect was scouting only the Jewish targets including the El Al airlines office here.
Headley, born to a Pakistani father and whose earlier name was Daood Gilani, has been charged by the FBI for conspiring in the audacious Mumbai attack of last year which left over 160 dead including six foreigners. On the Indian side, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), which was formed in the aftermath of 26/11, was probing the role of Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Rana.
Sources privy to the investigations said that Headley had carried out reconnaissance of Israeli airlines -- El AI -- office located at Cuffe Parade in March this year before moving to the national capital where he chose to stay in a small hotel at Pahargunj area.
Very quickly, the security agencies carried out the recce of the area and found a Chabad House, barely 300 metres from the hotel -- De Holiday Inn.