New Delhi : Defence Experts on Thursday said the funding of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack operative David Coleman Headley to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) must be verified by the Government of India, adding that even if he had funded the LeT it must have been at the behest of the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
“His funding to the LeT should be verified. We are yet to know whether these facts are true or not. The Government of India should find out from where he has raised this money, what were his businesses, are those businesses still continuing. We should wait and see because at times he is trying to show that he has funded, but what our information is that the ISI has funded his activities while he was staying in Bombay,” Defence Expert Qamar Agha told ANI.
Echoing similar sentiments, another Defence Expert P.K. Sehgal said that Headley must have funded the LeT at the behest of the Pakistani ISI.
“As per my perception, it’s the other way round. He received money in terms of Rs. 60-70 lakhs to undertake this job. Had it been the reverse also, he never had any money of his own,” he said.
Sehgal further stated that had the ISI been successful in assassinating Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray then there would have been a mega communal violence in Maharashtra.
“Shiv Sena has a reasonable hold in Maharashtra and obviously there would have been much greater fallout vis-a-vis 1993 attack after the Babri Masjid and Pakistan would have been the only gainer from this,” he added.
Expressing surprise, Security Expert Uday Bhaskar said that it was strange that Headley being a triple agent funded the LeT.
“His revelations are important for intelligence agencies and security forces. The way they reconstructed the case, his statement might triangulate as to how much accuracy is there in that and whether it matches with our investigation. In a domestic context, the role of the security agencies in this also gives us a signal,” he added.
Headley, who had been vehemently denying that he had not been paid by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, finally made a sensational revelation before a court today that the ISI had massively funded his entire operation.
He also revealed that the LeT attempted to kill Bal Thackeray and one person was apprehended by the police but he escaped.
Yesterday in his cross examination, Headley accepted that he had funded Rs. 80 lakh to the LeT, adding that he did not know the purpose of the money. (ANI)