Headley, Rana to be charged next week

Two Pakistani origin Chicago men, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, indicted on charges of involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, will be formally charged in a court here next week.

Both men were initially scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, but now Pakistan born Canadian citizen Rana will be arraigned on January 25.

Arraignment of Headley, son of a Pakistani father and an American mother has been set for January 27 before US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, US Attorney's Office spokesman Randall Samborn said.

A status hearing that was scheduled for Thursday in Rana's appeal of detention has also been cancelled and has not yet been rescheduled, he said. Headley and Rana were indicted on January 14 by a federal grand jury on charges of being involved in the Mumbai attacks and planning a terror strike against a Danish newspaper in Copenhagen.

The 12-count superseding indictment contains identical charges that were filed against Headley on December 7 while adding Rana as a defendant in three counts of material support for terrorism plots in Denmark and India, as well as support of Pakistan based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.

According to the charge sheet, Headley accused of scouting targets for the Mumbai attack, changed his given name of Daood Gilani on February 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, enabling him to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani.

Ilyas Kashmiri, an allegedly influential leader of Pakistan based terrorrist organisation Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI), who was alleged to be in regular contact with leaders of al Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman, a retired major in the Pakistani military were also indicted.