Was IIMA Headley’s target for terror strike

The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA) might have become a victim of a terror attack if the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US had not arrested David Coleman Headley, alias Dawood Gilani, in time.

Intelligence sources said that Headley had carried out a reconnaissance of the IIM-A campus during his stay in Ahmedabad and had prepared a map of the campus too.

The sources, however, said that, so far, intelligence agencies had not been able to establish the exact time of his stay in the city or the place where he had stayed. A source said that during his nine visits to India, Headley had visited Ahmedabad a few times, and had perhaps contacted the sleeper cells of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) in the city.

“There is every possibility that he visited the city before the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008,” the source said. The Gujarat police are looking for any trace of his visit in any part of the city.

Apart from the map of the IIM-A campus, Headley had also prepared maps of the National Defence College in New Delhi, the sources said.

Headley, along with his partner, Rahil Abdul Rehman Sheikh, ran a travel services firm which is suspected to have helped many terrorists in Maharashtra and Gujarat escape from the country illegally. The firm had offices in different cities of India and was providing aid to LeT and IM operatives.

Central intelligence agencies have also came across information that indicates that the travel firm may have helped the commander of Simi, Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, and Riyaz Batkal to escape the country after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad.