David Headley, 55, is testifying on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people in 2008.
Terrorist David Coleman Headley told a Mumbai court today that he had videographed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre or BARC in July 2008 and was asked to recruit someone from there to work with the Pakistani spy agency ISI.
"I also visited and videographed BARC. Major Iqbal told me that in some future date I should recruit some employee of BARC who would give us classified information and would be ready to work for the ISI," said Headley referring to the man he says was his main contact in the ISI or Inter Services Intelligence.
Headley said that he had handed over the BARC video to Sajid Mir, his handler in the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the ISI's Major Iqbal.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay near Mumbai, includes advanced nuclear labs, and has been on a terror hit list for years.
David Headley, 55, is testifying on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people in 2008. He has given the court details about his role in the deadly attack, which he says was planned and executed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in coordination with the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).
Headley has said he visited Mumbai seven times before the attack to survey possible targets and today said that after he had recced Mumbai, he held several meetings in Pakistan with Lashkar commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajid Mir and other terrorists, as well as ISI's Major Iqbal.
Headley said today that he had discouraged the Lashkar from picking a Naval air station and the famous Siddhivinayak temple as targets for the attack as "then all the ten attackers would have had to concentrate on one target only,"
The 10 terrorists had sneaked into Mumbai by sea on 26 November 2008 and attacked the city's landmarks in pairs. Headley said today that the idea to divide the ten terrorists in different groups was also discussed in one of
the meetings in Pakistan.
Headley is serving a 35-year prison sentence in the US for his role in the Mumbai attacks. A Mumbai court has pardoned terrorist David Headley, who has turned approver, or a prosecution witness, in the 26/11 case.