Pakistan-American terrorist David Headley (55) on Saturday told a special court trying the 26/11 attack case that Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had told him about the Ishrat Jehan 'operation', and added that he didn't know why the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had not mentioned it in its statement. Ishrat Jehan was killed along with three others in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.
Pakistan-American terrorist David Headley (55) on Saturday told a special court trying the 26/11 attack case that Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had told him about the Ishrat Jehan 'operation', and added that he didn't know why the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had not mentioned it in its statement. Ishrat Jehan was killed along with three others in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004.
During cross-examination by defence lawyer Wahab Khan on behalf of accused Abu Jundal, Headley claimed he had told NIA that "a female member of LeT who had died in an encounter in India was Ishrat Jehan".
Earlier, Headley had gone back on a part of his statement given to the NIA, saying he did not tell the probe agency about Lakhvi informing him that "Ishrat Jehan module" was a "botched-up operation" and added that "these were my thoughts".
"No, I did not say this (about it being botched up) to the NIA and cannot assign any reason why it has been so recorded," he told judge GA Sanap. He added that he had "no personal knowledge about Ishrat Jehan".
"When Lakhvi introduced Muzammil Bhat to me, he told me that he (Bhat) is one of the top LeT commanders and has done some operations, namely the Akshardham temple and Ishrat Jehan. The rest were my thoughts. I came to know about Ishrat Jehan from the media. These are my thoughts as to why the Ishrat Jehan operation resulted in failure," Headley said.
Cross-examination via video link of Headley, serving a 35-year prison term in the US, concluded on Saturday after four days of intense grilling.
In another development, the judge rejected the plea of the defence lawyer to defer the cross-examination as he had to meet Jundal in jail to seek instructions for further questioning of Headley.
The judge directed the jail authorities to allow the lawyer to meet the accused for two hours in prison or communicate with him via a video link in court, but as the lawyer did not accept this, the court rejected the plea.
Headley was then discharged from cross-examination and, soon thereafter, prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam moved an application for re-examination which was allowed by the court.
During re-examination by Nikam, Headley said he had referred to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai while deposing earlier about his visit to a nuclear power plant to conduct surveillance for potential targets. "I had visited BARC on the recommendation of Major Iqbal (of Pakistan)," he told Nikam.
Earlier, Headley told the defence lawyer that it was not correct to say that LeT wanted to assassinate former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, and that the NIA had incorrectly recorded it in his statement in July 2010.
Asked whether the NIA had read out the statement to him, Headley replied in the negative. He said neither had he requested the NIA for a copy of the statement nor was it provided to him and that he was seeing the statement for the first time in court.
When questioned whether he had videographed the residence of India's vice president during the surveillance he'd done, Headley said only the outer walls of the building were shot en route from Indian Army headquarters to National Defence College in New Delhi.
Headley also told the court that LeT chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed had told him prior to the attacks that late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray "needed to be taught a lesson", to which Headley had said that it would be done in six months.
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