According to charges filed by American federal prosecutors, an unnamed Lashkar member told David Headley in late 2005 that he would be travelling to India for recces to identify potential Lashkar targets.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT0 had started planning for the Mumbai terrorist attacks at least three years before its strikes in November 2008.
According to the charges filed by American federal prosecutors before a Chicago court, an unnamed Lashkar member A, who served as a "handler" for terror suspect David Coleman Headley and another person associated with LeT, advised him in
late 2005 that he would be travelling to India to perform surveillance of potential targets for Lashkar.
Arrested by the FBI in October last year, Headley, a Pakistani-American, has been charged with planning terrorist attack in India and being involved in the Mumbai terrorist attack.
His school-time friend Tahawwur Hussein Rana has also been arrested and indicted on similar charges.
In an indictment filed before the Chicago court today, federal prosecutors said, as per direction given by his LeT handlers Headley changed his given name of Daood Gilani on February 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, enabling him to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani.
In the spring of 2006, Lashkar member A and a Lashkar associate discussed with Headley the idea that he could open an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his surveillance activities.
In June 2006, Headley allegedly traveled to Chicago, advised Rana, a Canadian citizen, of his assignment to scout potential targets in India, and obtained approval from Rana, who owned 'First World Immigration Services' in Chicago and elsewhere, to open an office in Mumbai as cover for his activities.
The prosecutors said Rana allegedly directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley's cover story of opening a First World office in Mumbai, and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India.
Headley misrepresented his birth name, his father's true name and the purpose of his travel in his visa application, the indictment alleges.
In July 2006, unnamed Person A in Pakistan gave Headley approximately $25,000 to establish and operate the Mumbai office of First World and to pay for living expenses while Headley carried out his assignment for Lashkar, the charges add.
Headley later made five extended trips to Mumbai — in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time taking photographs and making videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked on 26 November 2008, and using his association with First World as cover for his travels.
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