Mumbai Terrorist Attack-News stories and timeline

[Avinash R]

LeT gave Headley $28,000 for Mumbai terror preparation
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN, 15 January 2010, 01:20pm IST

WASHINGTON: Guns, grenades, ammo, some dry fruits and bottled water, and the promise of paradise was all that offered to the ten young men who constituted the Pakistani cannon fodder for the 26/11 attack on Mumbai.

Expatriate Pakistanis who were part of the planning and surveillance cost a whole lot more – in US dollars.

A Federal Grand Jury indictment unsealed in Chicago on Thursday reveals that the Lashkar-e-Taiba bankrolled 26/11 suspect Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley to the tune of $ 28,000, including $ 3000 in Indian currency, for his repeated trips to India for surveillance jobs. Gilani/Headley’s LeT handlers also showed him a styrofoam mockup of the Taj Mahal hotel and provided him with a global positioning system device and taught him how to use it to record the locations of possible landing sites and potential targets in Mumbai, which Headley then used during his surveillance trips in April and July 2008, the charges state.

The new details are contained in the indictment formally charging Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana with helping his army school mate Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai terror attack and being part of a conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

Throwing fresh light on the case, the Grand Jury also indicted Ilyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani special forces commando who authorities allege is a terrorist leader in contact with al Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a ''retired'' major in the Pakistani military. Both are believed to be in Pakistan and it was not immediately clear how the U.S intends to proceed against them. Rana and Gilani are in federal custody in Chicago.

The indictment offers new details about the role that the two Pakistani army school buddies are alleged to have played in the 2008 terror assault in Mumbai that killed nearly 170 people and the financial transactions in Pakistan. It says Rana knew of the planned attacks as long ago as 2006, and that he allowed Headley to travel as a representative of his Chicago-based Immigration business when the latter went overseas to scout locations for the
attacks.

But Gilani/Headley’s involvement in terrorism goes even further back to 2002 and 2003 when he allegedly attended terrorism training camps in Pakistan maintained by LeT. According to the charges, unnamed Lashkar Member A, who served as a “handler” for Headley and another person associated with Lashkar, advised Headley in late 2005 that he would be traveling to India to perform surveillance of potential targets. Headley changed his given name of Daood Gilani on Feb. 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, enabling him “to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani,” says the indictment.

In the spring of 2006, Lashkar Member A and a Lashkar associate discussed with Headley the idea that he could open an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his surveillance activities. In approximately June 2006, Headley allegedly traveled to Chicago, advised Rana of his assignment to scout potential targets in India, and obtained approval from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, to open a First World office in Mumbai as cover for his activities.

Rana allegedly directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley’s cover story of opening a First World office in Mumbai, and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India. Headley misrepresented his birth name, his father’s true name and the purpose of his travel in his visa application, the indictment alleges.

The indictment says Headley made five extended trips to Mumbai — in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time taking photographs and making videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked in November 2008, and using his association with First World as cover for his travels. Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates allegedly instructed Headley regarding specific locations where he was to conduct surveillance, and Headley traveled to Pakistan after each trip to meet with Lashkar members and associates, report on the results of his surveillance, and provide the surveillance photos and videos.

US authorities have refrained from naming LeT Member A and other Pakistani associates in the plot in order not to embarrass Islamabad, which is widely seen here as patron of terrorism in all but formal designation. Washington apparently needs Pakistani cooperation, and a toe-hold in Islamabad, to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism there. Rana, 49, was indicted on three counts of providing material support to terrorism, including the Mumbai and Denmark plots. He remains held without bail and could face a life term if convicted. Headley, who is also 49, faces 12 counts, including six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India. The charges against him could carry the death penalty if he is convicted, but he has been cooperating with investigators since his arrest in Chicago in October in the hope of a reduced sentence.



LeT sought negotiation for Kasab release during Mumbai attack
PTI, 15 January 2010, 05:00pm IST

CHICAGO: The Pakistani handlers of the LeT men who attacked Mumbai wanted to obtain the release of captured gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab in exchange for the hostages held by the terrorists, an indictment chargesheet for two suspects has said.

A US federal grand jury in its 12-count indictment against terror suspects Tahawwur Hussein Rana and David Coleman Headley gave extensive details of the planning of the Mumbai attack and how Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders guided their men during the four-day siege beginning November 26, 2008.

Pakistani-origin Chicago resident Rana was indicted by the jury here along with American citizen Headley on charges of preparing the groundwork and providing material support for the LeT to carry out the Mumbai terror attack.

During the course of the attacks, the gunmen were in telephonic contact with three LeT leaders - identified as Members A, B and C -- all of whom were located in Pakistan.

During the course of the attacks, they were advised to, among other actions, kill hostages and throw grenades.

"LeT Member A also sought to arrange the release of a hostage in exchange for the release of a captured attacker," the chargesheet said.

According to the chargesheet the 10 young Pakistani men were given extensive training by LeT, in July-August 2008.

The terrorists were given training in various skills including combat tactics, room entry, hostage rescue, nautical training and swimming. The attacks on multiple installations killed 166 people including six American nationals.

[archan]

Wonder if the pakis would still claim that Ajmal is not a paki, but some Amar Singh(?).

[Amber G.]

Some what related:
Pentagon Report on Fort Hood Shooting Details Failures

[Gagan]

I have to say this at this point.

In one way perhaps it is better that these two guys are not extradited to India. The moment they are, the probe will end then and there. Pakistan will stop cooperating with India, and India will have no leverage to see this through.

The fact that these guys are being charged in massa land gives some hope that pakistan will be arm twisted into convicting the accused. Weather this hope on my part will prove to be true or false, time will tell.

[Masaru]

Evidence of presence of local handler

Evidence is emerging that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba controllers who guided the course of the November 2008 assault on Mumbai may have included at least one Indian national.

During the conversation, the controller used words like karenga - characteristic Mumbai usage for the phrase "will do" - as well as gathbandan, in place of the Urdu word, ittehad, for alliance, and prashasan, instead of intezamiya or hukumat, for government. All other conversations recorded in the tape are in Punjabi, Urdu and heavily-accented English.

[Lalmohan]

Evidence of presence of local handler

Evidence is emerging that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba controllers who guided the course of the November 2008 assault on Mumbai may have included at least one Indian national.

During the conversation, the controller used words like karenga - characteristic Mumbai usage for the phrase "will do" - as well as gathbandan, in place of the Urdu word, ittehad, for alliance, and prashasan, instead of intezamiya or hukumat, for government. All other conversations recorded in the tape are in Punjabi, Urdu and heavily-accented English.

boss jo upun mafik "karenga" bolenga na, to usko prasashan ani gatbandhan bolne pe saala tensun lena paDenga, ho ki nai?

[SSridhar]

A thousand nays from Kasab

The special sessions court trying the 26/11 case has so far put over 1,000 questions to the lone surviving gunman, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. His answer to all questions was ‘no,’ to deny the charges against him.

[negi]

Tape hints at Indian national in 26/11 control room

NEW DELHI: Evidence is emerging that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba controllers who guided the course of the November 2008 assault on Mumbai may have included at least one Indian national.

In a five-and-a-half-minute conversation with Imran Babar — the Lashkar terrorist, who, using the code-name Abu Akasha, took control of a Jewish prayer house in the Colaba area — a still-unidentified controller who appears to have been a native Hindi speaker provided detailed instructions to the terrorist on the contents of a statement he hoped to make to the media.

The conversation was among more than 200 phone calls made by the Lashkar controllers to the assault team on voice-over-Internet and satellite phones.

During the conversation, the controller used words like karenga — characteristic Mumbai usage for the phrase “will do” — as well as gathbandan, in place of the Urdu word, ittehad, for alliance, and prashasan, instead of intezamiya or hukumat, for government. All other conversations recorded in the tape are in Punjabi, Urdu and heavily-accented English.

Given that pakis were trying hard to portray this as an act of Indian Mujahideen slipping in some Hindi/Marathi words is not a difficult thing to do , having said that the involvement of a Indian born paki cannot be ruled out.

[archan]

I wonder if the "karenga" type of language is what prompted some pakis to say that the terrorists were speaking in a (Indian) Hyderabadi Hindi accent.

[SSridhar]

Pakistani court adjourns hearing until January 23.

A Pakistani anti-terror court on Saturday adjourned for a week the trial of seven men, including Lashker-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, accused of involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai [ Images ] attacks as an application filed by them is pending with the Lahore [ Images ] High Court.

Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan of the anti-terror court was to begin recording evidence against the accused but adjourned the matter till January 23 in view of an application filed by Lakhvi in the Lahore High Court seeking the transfer of the case to another court.

Look here for a chronology of delays in Pakistani court

[Lalmohan]

What really strikes me as strange is that they chose Chabad house which very very few locals known about rather than ORT.

nothing strange about that, they wanted to force India's hand by putting Jewish lives in danger and getting Israel to pressurise India. there is a lot of careful thinking behind this attack

[sum]

I wonder if the "karenga" type of language is what prompted some pakis to say that the terrorists were speaking in a (Indian) Hyderabadi Hindi accent.

And if Kasab wasn't caught, you can expect almost 20-30% of the Indians to have believed that only IMs protesting Gujarat riots were involved....

[arun]

X Posted.

Indicted Pakistani origin terrorist Daood Gilani aka David Coleman Headley has a lawyer who is apparently an expert deal maker.

Lets hope that a prospective deal does not include silence on the connections leading back to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack:

Terror suspect's attorney knows how to make a deal

[CRamS]

I wonder if the "karenga" type of language is what prompted some pakis to say that the terrorists were speaking in a (Indian) Hyderabadi Hindi accent.

And if Kasab wasn't caught, you can expect almost 20-30% of the Indians to have believed that only IMs protesting Gujarat riots were involved....

And don't forget the entire world including the bakara types in the Indian media.

[SSridhar]

And now, Kasab says that all Taj attackers were Indians

Continuing his flip-flop, Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab on Monday told a special court trying the 26/11 attacks case that all the four terrorists who stormed Taj hotel were Indians.

Kasab, whose statement is being recorded by the court on evidences adduced by the prosecution, told Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani that while one of the terrorists of the Taj hotel siege was a Kashmiri, another was from Gujarat.

Kasab claimed the third terrorist at Taj was Abu Ismail from Mumbai. According to prosecution, Ismail was gunned down at Girgaum Chowpatty by the police in an encounter when he along with Kasab was trying to escape. He, however, did not elaborate on the identity of the fourth terrorist at the Taj.

[chetak]

And now, Kasab says that all Taj attackers were Indians

Continuing his flip-flop, Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab on Monday told a special court trying the 26/11 attacks case that all the four terrorists who stormed Taj hotel were Indians.

Kasab, whose statement is being recorded by the court on evidences adduced by the prosecution, told Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani that while one of the terrorists of the Taj hotel siege was a Kashmiri, another was from Gujarat.

Kasab claimed the third terrorist at Taj was Abu Ismail from Mumbai. According to prosecution, Ismail was gunned down at Girgaum Chowpatty by the police in an encounter when he along with Kasab was trying to escape. He, however, did not elaborate on the identity of the fourth terrorist at the Taj.

kasab is being fed this pre digested pap straight from isi hqs.

The urdu press on both sides will play it up.

[Gagan]

This is going to fall flat on its face just like Jahil Hamid's "Amar singh" story.

Pakistan is trying to turn this media spectacle to make GoI uncomfortable. What will pakistan do if GoI releases the home addresses of the other terrorists? As usual, the Pakistanis indulge in Strategic Brilliance without thinking beyond one or two moves - while Indians are chess grandmasters.

The pakistanis are doing this so that the 7 on trail for 26/11 might escape the gauntlet, because their trail has been set up on the basis of Kasab's testimony. But with Headley and Rana being charged for 26/11, and they singing like canaries, and that too in a massa court, Kasab's going back on his testimony has less value.

But with kasab's new tune also has come the news that at least one Indian handler was present in the room who was using 'bambaiya' words. Interesting.

[mmasand]

What is funny about all these testimonies from Kasab: he has all the news of everything concerning him in the media being fed to his cozy hamlet with gosht biryani and yet the judge isn't doing anything to inquire of how this info is getting to him...there is only 1 way i know...!

[Lalmohan]

at least one Indian handler was present in the room who was using 'bambaiya' words. Interesting.

gagan-ji, this has already been de-bunked. any LMU undergrad can pick up bambaiya from movies that he isnt allowed to watch

[ramana]

What about this Khawja guy from Hyderabad who was arrested yesterday? He is reported to be one of the handlers.

[Gagan]

Slowly there will be more info coming out from the huge pitara of evidence that GoI has on pakistan.
The pakistanis were hugely upset at what all evidence India had on the 26/11 attacks, thus they would send the dossiers back every few days to seek more evidence. They know India is not giving them all the info - just enough to convict the 7 baboons. They were extremely fearful that the linkages to serving ISI officials will come out, perhaps even the Jernails might be implicated. The extreme takleef they were having was plain to see.

PS: I am almost imagine the scene when motu Hafiz Sayeed and the others first heard the taped conversations on Channel 4 documentary. They must have fallen off the chairs in shock. A wheel barrow would have been needed to lift that motu from the floor.

[shiv]

kasab is being fed this pre digested pap straight from isi hqs.

The urdu press on both sides will play it up.

Kasab is becoming an Indian and has figured out how an accused must talk in India. All that remains is a passport, a national award for population control and a job with an NGO headed by Ms Roy, or entry into some political party.

[vasu_ray]

Kasab and and other paki terrorists caught should be declared TSP's ambassadors and should be allowed to join the 'Aman Ki Asha' panel so that people can hear TSP's message directly

[negi]

As per TOI

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 334632.cms

Even 26/11 attackers, armed with fake IDs of a Bangalore engineering college

Need to find the college and btw is getting a college ID a fast process these days ?

[AdityaM]

Never before heard of "Deepak Kuntawala"

http://www.mahalo.com/deepak-kuntawala

Indian hero hailed by British royalty called a 'fraud'

I wonder how he has been unmasked

[Patni]

As per TOI

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 334632.cms

Even 26/11 attackers, armed with fake IDs of a Bangalore engineering college

Need to find the college and btw is getting a college ID a fast process these days ?

Breaking News: Kasab's college ID fake: Bangalore woman

Swati Deshpande, TNN, 18 June 2009, 01:04am IST
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MUMBAI: Blowing the lid off Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab's fake college identity card, a 38-year-old woman from Bangalore informed the special trial judge on Wednesday that the address on the card was of her vacant open plot.

Usha Shreyas, the plot owner, was added to the witness list by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam to establish that Kasab had been given a fake Indian identity before carrying out the 26/11 attacks.

Nikam asked Kasab to stand up in the dock and, pointing at him, asked Shreyas if he had ever stayed on Plot Number 254, Teachers' Colony, Bangalore. Shreyas said she had never seen him before and that he never had resided on her vacant land. Shreyas also said she had not heard of the so-called Arunodaya College either.

The Arunodaya college is in Hyderabad and not in Bangalore. Just same case as Bangalore, Kerala!

Kasab not my student, says college principal

Posted: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 2356 hrs
Mumbai:
The principal of a college in Hyderabad on Tuesday deposed before the special sessions court trying Ajmal Kasab and two others in the Mumbai terror attacks case.

The witness, G Radhakrishnan, principal of Arunodaya Degree College of Hyderabad, had a close look at the seven ID-cards which Kasab was found to be carrying when he was captured and told the court that they were not issued by his college.

Radhakrishnan also looked at Kasab and told the court he was not a student of his college.

Radhakrishnan said details in the ID-card issued by the college are manually filed and then the principal signs on them before putting the official seal.

The ID-cards shown to him in court had computer entries and did not have his signature either, showing they were forged, said Radhakrishnan.

Radhakrishnan also showed the court admission records of the college since 2003, in which there was no mention of the names shown in the ID-cards.

[ramana]

As per TOI

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 334632.cms

Even 26/11 attackers, armed with fake IDs of a Bangalore engineering college

Need to find the college and btw is getting a college ID a fast process these days ?

Havent you seen "3 i(n)diots"? The chief protoganist helps his employer's son get a degree even college graduation photu!

[ramana]

New tactic/antics!

Kasab chooses Marathi to answer questions

[svinayak]

Need to find the college and btw is getting a college ID a fast process these days ?

Pakistanis are used to ID cards issued by Paki govt that they think in India it is the same case

[SSridhar]

Kasab answers questions in Marathi

Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab on Wednesday answered in Marathi most of the questions put to him by the trial court, as he continued to deny his involvement in the 26/11 terror attacks.

[negi]

Wow so he was taught marathi in L.e.T training camp no wonder these guys managed to mingle with the local populace in Mumbai.

[Gagan]

He's been in Jail for 14 months. How different is marathi from hindi and thereby urdu? Not too difficult I suppose to not pick up in 14 months.

I'll bet the pakis are laughing.

Indian intel guys are laughing too. I bet India will have the last laugh.

[shiv]

He's been in Jail for 14 months. How different is marathi from hindi and thereby urdu? Not too difficult I suppose to not pick up in 14 months.

Well in less than 14 years Kasab will be qualified to drive a taxi in Mumbai.

[Avinash R]

David Headley, Tahawwur Rana to be arraigned next week
PTI, 21 January 2010, 04:31am IST

CHICAGO: Terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, indicted on charges of being involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will be arraigned in a court here next week.

The arraignment of Rana and Headley was initially scheduled for today but have now been rescheduled. While Pakistani-Canadian citizen Rana will be arraigned on January 25, Pakistani-American Headley's arraignment 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.

Further, a status hearing that was scheduled for today in Rana's appeal of detention has also been cancelled and not yet been rescheduled, Samborn said.

Chicagoans 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 the identical charges that were filed against Headley on December 7 while adding Rana as a defendant in three of the counts charging material support of the terrorism plots in Denmark and India, as well as in support of terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ilyas Kashmiri, an allegedly influential terrorist organisation leader in Pakistan who is alleged to be in regular contact with leaders of al Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed (Abdur Rehman), a retired major in the Pakistani military were also indicted.

Headley had in December pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against him. Rana has been in custody since his arrest last year and has been denied bond.

[SSridhar]

Mumbai attack: Failures of Command - Praveen Swami

[SSridhar]

Lahore High Court dismisses Lakhvi's appeal

Lahore High Court has rejected the petition of accused of Mumbai attacks Zakiur Rehman Lahkhvi for transfer of case to Lahore.

The court has directed to provide complete security to Lakhvi. The accused had filed a petition for transfer of case to Lahore from anti-terror court in Rawalpindi due to threats to life of petitioner’s lawyer from Indian agents.

The court in its verdict stated that government has given assurance about the security of Lakhvi, however, government will provide more security to him and his lawyer if he request for that.

Time for Lakhvi to file another frivolous case.

Look here for a chronology of delays in Pakistani court

[SSridhar]

Trial at Adiala adjourned for a week on account of defence lawyers' boycott

A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of LeT's operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others for involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Saturday adjourned the hearing for a week after defence lawyers boycotted the proceedings complaining of lack of security for them.

Shahbaz Rajput, one of the defence lawyers, said that they had boycotted the hearing because the anti-terror court in Rawalpindi had not implemented the Lahore High Court's ruling that the counsels should be provided adequate security.

"When we reached the anti-terrorism court today, we found no arrangement had been made for our security and for consultations with our clients as was directed by the Lahore High Court," said Rajput.

Look here for a chronology of delays in Pakistani court

[SSridhar]

LeT behind Mumbai Carnage, confirms Pakistan

Pakistani investigators have corroborated the statement made by Ajmal Kasab, the lone gunman arrested in Mumbai, even as they concluded that almost all the terrorists involved in the 26/11 attack belonged to LeT and there is "sufficient evidence" to prosecute them.

The report which was presented to the anti-terror court conducting the trial of seven accused, including LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi states that there is "sufficient incriminating evidence on record against those arrested for orchestrating the Mumbai attacks."

The report further said that evidence collected by Pakistani investigators had corroborated the statement made by Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone attacker arrested in Mumbai.

Those who are still at large include crew members of the Al-Fauz and Hussaini, the two boats used by the ten terrorists who attacked India?s financial hub.{What about the 9 dead terrorists whose bodies are still lying in Mumbai} ?

Investigators had also corroborated Kasab's statement about his family and his native village of Faridkot in Pakistan's Punjab province by collecting records from his school and local voters' list.

[arun]

^^^ The above story on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s admission that Islamic terrorists based in the Islamic Republic were responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack is attributed to Dawn, yet I cannot seem to find the story appearing on the Dawn website.

Has anyone managed to track down the story on Dawn’s website

Or

Is this a case where the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is back to its Islamic terrorist supporting ways and has strong armed Dawn to pull the story back

[SSridhar]

Pakistan normally doesn't give publicity to such self-incriminating news items.