Headley, Hafiz to be chargesheeted
Two ISI officers among nine to be prosecuted for 26/11 Mumbai attacks
The Centre has given its sanction to chargesheet nine persons including Pakistan born American terrorist David Headley, LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and two ISI officers for plotting terror attacks in India, including the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai that had left 166 people dead.
Headley, a known LeT operative, is currently in the custody of the US authorities. It is believed that he was double-crossing and working for terror organisation as well as the FBI, the US agency.
The Home Ministry also gave sanction to National Investigation Agency (NIA) to prosecute 26/11 attacks mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Headley’s accomplice, and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana and al-Qaeda operative Illyas Kashmiri, according to sources.
Sajid Malik, handler of Headley, and Abdul Rehman Hashmi will also be named in the charge sheet besides two officers Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali, believed to be working for Pakistan’s snooping agency, the sources said. The sanction of prosecution against the nine was given after a legal opinion of the Law Ministry was obtained. They will be named in the charge sheet for waging war against the country under the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The NIA had registered a case against 50-year-old Headley and Rana on November 12, 2009 and later on added other names after investigation by central security agencies, that brought to the fore the involvement of a large set of people in terror activities against the country.
Headley and Rana have been accorded legal protection in the US as they have confessed to their crimes to escape a harsher punishment in that country. The NIA had a limited access to both when an Indian team of investigators visited the US.
