Raids to probe Headley links

Sleuths from the National Investigating Agency (NIA), in coordination with the state polices on Saturday conducted raids and search operations in 27 places across the country, including at least five places in Mumbai, as they followed the trail of the two LeT terrorists, David Headley and Tahawwur Rana.

Investigations are now focused on two fronts: evidence to establish their direct role in the 26/11 attacks, and to ascertain what the terror module was planning to do in the coming days.

Sources said dozens of officers from the NIA, which on Wednesday had filed a FIR naming Headley and Rana, have fanned out across India to investigate the activities of the two.

It was learnt that, among other suspects, the NIA sleuths searched the Khar home of Fahim Ansari, one of the main accused in the 26/11 attack. Two persons were taken in for questioning in Mumbai, two in Kolkotta and one in Delhi, sources said.

Created by an Act of Parliament in December 2008, and based on the American FBI model, the NIA was specially set up to monitor and investigate major terror cases and has an all-India jurisdiction. This nationwide operation is the first such by the federal agency since its inception.

Evidence gathered until now suggest that Headley probably stayed at Mumbai’s Taj hotel, one of the targets of the 26/11 attacks, twice in 2007 — between March 28 and 30 (in room no. 1809), and then between May 2 and May 7 (in room no. 314).  Sources say that the possibility of their involvement in the 26/11 is becoming “clearer by the hour.”

One senior source in the security establishment said what is emerging is that the two may have recceed the targets in Mumbai, studied them in detail, and passed on the information to LeT in Pakistan. Besides, it is also possible they were in touch with the 10 terrorists when they landed in Mumbai.

The central agencies have established that Headley had posed as a Jew to many during his stay in Mumbai, which may have helped him get access to the Jewish community in the city, and locate the Nariman House. On one occasion, when Headley landed in Mumbai he had named Hotel Trident as his local residential address in his immigration papers, but he didn’t stay there.

Headley visited India nine times on his US passport no 097536400, which was issued on March 10, 2006, and was valid for 10 years. Even as the investigators look for further proof to establish the direct link between the duo and the 26/11 attacks, they are also trying to figure out what possible targets they had been discussing with their Pakistani handlers in the phone calls and emails that FBI had intercepted.

Though it is being speculated that the National Defence College in Delhi was a target, investigators are increasingly looking at the possibility of the National Defence Academy in Pune or the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun having been targeted.

Investigators are also looking at the motives behind Headley’s and Rana’s trips to Delhi, Agra, Kochi, Ahmedabad and other cities. “They could have been working on multiple targets,” says one senior source.