'US thrice shared non-specific inputs on Mumbai attack'

The inputs about a possible terror threat to some places in the country, including Mumbai, were shared with Indian officials by their American interlocutors on three ocassions before the dastardly attack on the financial capital in 2008.

"But it was more of general information, non-specific in nature," sources said. Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had said India had received only "very general" information from the US, prior to 26/11, about Lashkar-e Taiba terrorist David Headley's plans of attacks here.

"In the last few months, once Headley case surfaced, we have had interactions and exchanges with the American authorities into investigations," Rao had said.

Rao was responding when asked to comment on US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake's statement that Washington had passed on information to India on Headley's plans.
Headley's two wives had reportedly told FBI over a year prior to the Mumbai attacks that he was working with LeT and planning attacks in India.

Media reports have suggested that the US did not pass on these specific inputs to India, which could have helped avert 26/11 strikes.