FBI has details on Headley-Rana 26/11 ‘links’

American investigators have hinted to India that they have details linking terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana to the 26/11 attacks, according to a highly placed source in the security establishment.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team landed in Delhi on Sunday night with the details, he said. “They have promised us a whole lot of new material,” the source said. “They have hinted that it has something to do with 26/11. We are waiting,” the source added. The source said that they do not want to jump the gun but they believe that the FBI team, which will be in India till December 8, will provide insights into the operations of the Pakistan-born, US citizen Headley and Pakistan-born Canadian citizen Rana, who are in US custody.

Headley had been visiting India between 2006 and 2008, and ran an immigration agency from Tardeo Market in Mumbai. Though Indian investigators were able to glean a huge amount of information on Headley and Rana, who visited India a few days before the Mumbai attacks, they are yet to establish direct links between the two and 26/11.

The two were coordinating with Syed Abdul Rahman, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader based in Pakistan. Rahman was controlling the Huji-LeT network based out of Bangladesh.

He was also a contact between the US-based duo and Ilyas Kashmiri, a veteran of Afghan mujahideen operations, a former Pakistan army commando and now Al Qaeda supporter fighting US forces.