Headley changed his name at Lashkar's insistence

US-born terror suspect David Coleman Headley had changed his name from Daood Gilani at the insistence of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit so that he could easily carry out surveillance of potential targets in India.

After conceiving the plan in 2005 to target Mumbai, top LeT terrorists asked him to change his name to conceal his association with Pakistan or Muslim religion, the FBI said, without identifying the militants involved.

According to the charges filed by American federal prosecutors before a Chicago court, an unnamed Lashkar member A, who served as a "handler" for terror suspect Headley, and another person associated with LeT, told him in late 2005 that he would be travelling to India to perform surveillance of potential targets for the terror outfit.

"As per direction given by his LeT handlers, Headley changed his given name of Daood Gilani on February 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, enabling him to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani," federal prosecutors said in an indictment filed before the court today.

Arrested by the FBI in October last year, 49-year-old Headley has been charged with planning terrorist attacks in India, and being involved in the Mumbai strikes.

His school friend Tahawwur Hussein Rana has also been arrested and indicted on similar charges.