Mumbai : David Headley made sensational revelations in his deposition on Thursday before the special Mumbai court, in which he took the name of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an alleged ‘fake encounter’ and said that he was informed by Muzammil Bhatt about a botched operation in Gujarat because of a female suicide bomber.
“David Headley has made many sensational revelations. The first revelation was made when we asked him how many wings does Lashkar have. He replied that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi is the operation commander. Hafiz Saeed is the founder. He also named finance wing, women wing and a naval wing. We further asked him who the head of the women wing was, to which he said that Abu Hunja’s mother was the head of the wing,” special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, Ujjwal Nikam told the media here.
“We also asked him if he had any knowledge of a suicide bomber. He replied that Zakiur Rehman, in Headley’s presence, had told Muzammil Bhatt that an operation had failed because of him. He further informed us that Muzammil told Headley that Zakiur Rehman was angry because of a failed operation in Gujarat because of a female suicide bomber. When we asked him if he knew the name of the suicide bomber, he denied remembering the name but said that Muzammil had told him the name,” he added.
Nikam further said that he named three women suicide bombers of the LeT for Headley to pick from.
“Then, I named three women suicide bombers associated with the Lashkar – Noor Jahan Begum, Ishrat Jahan, Mumtaz Begum. When he heard the three names, he said that he had heard the name of Ishrat Jahan and said that she was killed in a police encounter,” he told the media.
Nikam also said that when asked if Headley knew Ilyas Kashmiri, “he replied in affirmation and said that Kashmiri congratulated him after the 26/11 attack.”
“He further informed us that Lashkar had carried out attacks in Gujarat and Maharashtra. When we asked him where in Gujarat, he said that Muzammil Bhatt was involved in the attack on the Akshardham attack,” he said.
Headley also recognised the picture of Abu Khafa and further informed that after the 26/11 attack, he met Sajid Mir and heard a recorded tape which had voices of three people out of which other than Mir two others were Abu Khafa and Abu Alkama.
“He also informed that the three were at a control room in Karachi from where they were talking to the terrorists in Taj. We had also got his information from Kasab, who said the same thing,” he said.
After a day’s break yesterday due to a technical snag in the video conferencing link, 26/11 terror attack convict David Coleman Headley’s deposition continues today.
During the last two days of deposition, Headley revealed several names in Pakistani Army and the ISI who are working closely with terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamat-ul-Dawa (JuD) to carry out attacks in India.
He informed about the ISI giving moral, financial and military support to the LeT and gave a detailed plan of modus operandi behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. (ANI)