JOIN US Days after he admitted that the ISI wanted him to penetrate into India’s military establishment, terror operative David Coleman Headley on Friday said the Pakistani spy agency asked him to recruit people at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) in Mumbai to get classified information.
This revelation came when he confirmed that he was in touch with the ISI while working in parallel for the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the al Qaeda.
Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked how does he know about Barc, he said: “Major Iqbal (of ISI) told me if at future date I could recruit someone from that location, some employee.” When asked for whom, he said: “For ISI, not for LeT.”
Asked for the reasons, he said: “That’s routine…most countries do that with each other.” Pressed further, the Pakistani-American said: “So that they can give up classified information.”
When questioned whether he visited Barc, he replied in positive. But when questioned whether he recruited anyone, he said: “As I have said earlier, it was for a future date.”
He said he had also made videos and handed it over to Major Iqbal and his LeT handler Sajid Mir.
Targeting Sena
In yet another sensational revelation, David Headley on Friday said that late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and the Shiv Sena Bhavan at Dadar were the possible targets of Laskhar-e-Toiba.
Headley, a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist, who also doubled up as an ISI operative and a spy of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda, confirmed this during is audio and video deposition before a Mumbai court.
Headley said that he undertook the mission on his own and had kept posted Sajid Mir, his handler in the Lashkar.
To a question whether he knows Rajaram Rege, he said: “Yes….I had met him at the Shiv Sena headquarters at Dadar.” On being asked about the reasons of meeting him, he said that he wanted access in the building and he had been there twice and has taken video clips from inside and also from outside and gave them to Sajid Mir.
“I attempted to develop a relationship with him (Rajaram Rege) and it developed a little,” he said.
Asked why he did that, Headley said – “It was in April 2007…as Lashkar-e-Toiba may be interested in launching some kind of an attack or assassinate its head” – a clear reference to Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.
“I think he told me he was his son Uddhav Thackeray’s PRO.” On being prodded whether Sajid Mir asked him to pursue it, he said: “Definitely, Yes.”
Meanwhile, Rege said that he had met Headley only once. “He had come to the Shiv Sena Bhavan and introduced himself as some kind of an immigration consultant,” he said. Rege added that he also discussed business proposals. He also said that no videos were taken in his presence. In 2010, he was investigated by the NIA.
The Shiv Sena said that the statement of David Headley does not surprise them. “He (late Bal Thackeray) was on the hit list, we are proud of it. We are on hit list of Pakistan, we are proud of it…we are the only people who speak against Pakistan,” Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said.