The probe being carried out by the NIA into pre-26/11 visits of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana are throwing light on an original plan of the duo to carry out the attack in Bangalore.
The probe being carried out by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into pre-26/11 visits of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana are throwing light on an original plan of the duo to carry out the attack in Bangalore. Based on FBI inputs, the NIA sleuths have found that the Bangalore college identity card with the lone surviving 26/11 terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, was organised by Headley and Rana during one of their visits to the city.
The agencies have reportedly discovered that the duo visited Bangalore in early 2006, mainly to scout for targets. Headley and Rana also travelled the length and breadth of the city to procure local residential addresses as identity cover for the 26/11 terrorists, sources said.
Headley and Rana had also carried out reconnaissance of Bangalore before the July 25, 2008 serial blasts, but botched it up due to lack of systematic planning and improper distribution of resources, sources said. “They could not achieve maximum damage as they selected the wrong places. Had Headley and Rana conducted a full-time inspection of places, they could have caused more damage,” said an NIA officer.
The July 2008 blasts were low-intensity explosions in eight different locations in Bangalore, which killed one woman at the bus stand opposite St John’s Hospital and Medical College on Sarjapur Road.
Sources said Headley and Rana had visited Bangalore and selected the July 2008 targets, before allegedly directing Riyaz Bhatkal to supervise serial blasts attacks in the city. Sleuths are now probing into whether the failure to achieve the desired devastation in the July 2008 blasts had led the duo to plan a larger attack at a subsequent date.
However, the NIA sources said, the target for 26/11 was changed to Mumbai, probably because of the easier access to that city using a porous western coastline. NIA officials were looking for estate agents who could have helped Headley in looking for a house in Breach Candy, sources said.
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