Headley names ’Ishrat Jahan’ LeT suicide bomber

 

Mumbai, 11 Feb 2016: Terrorist David Coleman Headley, who is currently testifying in Mumbai court regarding 26/11 attacks, made a shocking revelation on Thursday.

 

He named Ishrat Jahan before Mumbai Court and called her a ’suicide bomber’ and said, "Jahan, who was killed in a 2004 encounter by Gujarat cops, was a Lashkar member."

 

The Ishrat Jahan encounter case is an ongoing criminal case in the Gujarat state of India, took place on 15 June 2004, and involved encounter killings of Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year-old girl from Mumbra, Maharashtra, and three men: Pranesh Pillai (alias Javed Gulam Sheikh), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar who were alleged links to terrorists, by officers of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch.

 

The encounter was carried out allegedly by a team led by DIG D.G. Vanjara, who was later jailed for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter.

 

The police alleged that Ishrat and her associates were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives involved in a plot to assassinate the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

 

Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley today continued his deposition for the third day before a court here.

 

Deposing from an undisclosed location in the US, Headley had told special judge G A Sanap that ISI was helping different terror outfits in Pakistan and was providing financial, military and moral support.

 

The deposition of Headley could not happen yesterday due to a technical snag in the video conference in the US.

 

Headley, who had conducted recce of the places in Mumbai which were attacked by 10 LeT terrorists on November 26, 2008, also revealed that the outfit had initially planned to attack a conference of Indian Indian defence scientists in Taj Mahal Hotel.

 

He said he had also conducted a recce of the famous Siddhivinayak Temple and Naval air station on directions of LeT commanders.

 

While spilling beans about involvement of Pakistan’s army and intelligence agency in terrorism in India, he said he knew ISI official Brigadier Riyaz being the handler of LeT’s top commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who was the mastermind of 26/11 attacks.

 

Headley, who had visited Mumbai seven times to scout for targets, revealed that plans to target Mumbai had started over a year before 26/11.