Siddhivinayak temple was also on radar

Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Toiba agent David Headley told a Mumbai court on Tuesday that the Siddhivinayak Temple at Prabhadevi, Naval Air Station at Colaba and the Maharashtra Police headquarters were among the possible targets.

These locations, however, were not selected when the actual attack took place between November 26 to 29, 2008, in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured.

Headley revealed the names of places surveyed: Two south Mumbai 5-star hotels–the Taj Mahal Palace at Colaba and Oberoi Trident at Marine Drive–Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), landing site of Badhwar Park, Maharashtra Police headquarters near Regal Cinema, Chabad House and Leopold Café at Colaba, the entire stretch of Shahid Bhagat Singh Road from the Colaba police station, Naval Air Station and Siddhivinayak Temple.

“Sajid Mir (LeT handler) wanted me to especially do reconnaissance of Siddhivinayak Temple,” said Headley. On his visits to Mumbai in 2008, he said: “I did surveillance of multiple targets as well as selected the landing site.”

Headley said that he had taken photographs and videos of these places and handed it over to Mir and Maj Iqbal of ISI on his return to Pakistan.

To a question on CST, he said that at initial stages, it was surveyed for an escape route for the fidayeens.

Headley further said that he was taught to use GPS by Mir and Abu Khafa. When asked for reasons, he said: “So that I could fix and store locations in the Arabian Sea.” On his return, he had handed over the GPS device to Mir.

In fact, Headley had scouted these locations not once but several times during the seven trips before the 26/11 terror strike. He said that the first meeting to fix Mumbai as a target was held in December 2007 at Muzaffarabad.

Headley also admitted that he was investing in property in Dubai. “I had business in US and it was that money,” he said and repeatedly denied getting money from LeT or ISI.