A team of Indian officials from IB and RAW have arrived in the US for possible questioning of terror suspect David Coleman Headley, a Pakistan-born American national, who was arrested by the FBI for plotting a major attack in India at the behest of LeT.
A team of Indian officials from IB and RAW have arrived in the US for possible questioning of terror suspect David Coleman Headley, a Pakistan-born American national, who was arrested by the FBI for plotting a major attack in India at the behest of LeT.
However, both Indian and American officials sought to downplay the visit and remained tight-lipped on the schedule of the Indian team.
They said they can "neither confirm or deny" whether the officials from Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing questioned Headley, who is currently under the custody of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Chicago.
Headley, 49, was arrested by the FBI last month on charges of plotting a major terrorist attacks — one in India in association with Lashkar-e-Taiba and another one in Denmark.
After the US announced his arrest, home minister P Chidambaram had said in New Delhi that a team of officials from the IB and RAW would visit the US to get more details about the case from the FBI and also quiz Headley.
However, officials here refused to comment on the team's visit.
"We can neither confirm this (IB and RAW officials quizzing Headley) nor deny this," was the response PTI received from both the FBI and US Department of Justice. The Indian Embassy in Washington, which is coordinating the issue with the FBI and the State Department, did not return calls on questions posed to them on the visit of IB and RAW officials to Chicago.
Headley's school-time friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin too was arrested by the FBI on similar charges.
Both were residents of Chicago and have been lodged in a downtown Chicago jail.
The busting of the terror plot ? which revealed that LeT was planning to use an American national in planning a major terrorist attack in India — raised an alarm in India, particularly given that LeT and Headley talked about targeting a mysterious "Rahul".
The FBI in its charge sheet filed before a Chicago court, said the consul general of Pakistan in Chicago personally knows both Rana and Headley as all three of them are from the same high school.
But the FBI affidavit does not say whether the Consul General was aware or had any inclination of their terrorist connection of Rana and Headley.
Headley and Rana were arrested by the FBI early this month on charges of plotting a terrorist attack against the facilities and employees of a Danish newspaper which had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
The charge sheet also indicates that LeT was planning to use Headley for a major terrorist attack in India.
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