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| Following the David Headley trail |
| Wednesday November 18, 2009 |
| When I first extracted the FBI complaint filed by officer Lorenzo Benedict on October 28 none among Indian security agencies or the establishment had even remotely imagined he would initiate such a frantic response. I had read the report and the India connection stood out starkly so I mailed it to a few people I know in the security set up. In fact when I passed on the document to some of the officers, they were nonchalant and showed little interest. Two of these officers from different departments congratulated me for bringing it to the notice of the security agencies. The next day that an IB officer agreed to see me and gave tit-bits on apprehensions that Headley could be the "Prime Plotter" of the 26/11 attack in Mumbai. Apart from Faheem and Sabauddin who had been arrested earlier, the officer told me, the agencies had not found anyone who had any link with India prior to the attack. According to information available, he added, Headley had visited India just a few months before the attack. I broke it that day but did not have much to go by. More details emerged 8 days later. Details of trips that Headley had made to India. Suddenly, the entire country was in in a tizzy. But as more and more details emerge, more and more uncomfortable questions arise. Headley had travelled often to Pakistan and the Middle East. Why did security agencies fail to spot this glaring fact? A reason cited by an immigration official is that owing to his birth in Pakistan, he could have held at least two passports. Pakistan allows dual citizenship to those living in the USA or Canada. Another reason could be that as he is a trained spy and must have travelled under different identities. Of course the general and by now familiar ruse will be that since there are hundreds of foreigners visiting India every year, how many could they have tracked? But as I read the FBI document I realized that not only was Headley operating in India, but he was a jet setter of sorts. He may have passed off as any other multinational professional who travel to various parts of the world on business. He kept travelling to Pakistan and Mid-East. In fact in one of the mails that he sent to a Lashkar Commander in Pakistan, Headley said that Pakistan was too far and wanted to meet up in either Mid East of Africa showing some kind of travel distress. His relationship with Kashmiri also ran very deep. The duo seemed to have known each other over a long period of time and in all likely hood must have carried out several operations together. There is something very interesting emerging out here. Kashmiri, a former Pakistan Special Forces commando, seemed to have gone renegade. From Army, where he took part covert operations against Indian Forces, he went on to become a top militant of the nation who is even accused of trying to kill former president Pervez Musharraf and accused of planning General Alvi who it turns out had been speaking out against him for being an extremist. Headley had been deeply distressed when he heard of Kashmiri's death in September in a drone attack but a month later Kashmiri resurfaced. Considering that he could traverse around the world for many years without getting arrested, he surely seems to be someone who was well trained to evade security agencies. Headley, though being described as a Lashkar operative, seems to be someone who operated by himself. Much in the mould of Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos. Headley travelled around the world, plotted, hired and left the execution to people he had picked up to execute the job. But what is really scary in this is that both Rana and Headley travelled to various parts of India during 2006-2008 and disturbingly, some of the most deadly bombings took place in various cities of India around this period only. Infact cities like Ahemdabad and Delhi and of course Mumbai saw some of the worst attacks. So a big question that we are staring at right now is that whether the duo was the cog in the wheel of all these operations and if so then did the security agencies erred in not investigation beyond what they managed to get. The added complaint by FBI points to a larger role of Rana and signals that it was he who was instrumental in preparing Headley his acts. What now needs to be done is not just to unravel the mysteries associated with the duo but also to find out the connections that they left behind and who might get activated at short notice. Another big question that arises out of this is whether we were plain lucky that FBI got these two before they could carry out any attack in India. The answer was given to me by a senior intelligence officer yesterday. Yes, of course. At least they got them!! |
Shailendra Mohan is a Principal Correspondent who has been with NDTV for four years. He has worked in the field for over seven years. Shailendra covers city happenings and crime stories and has a keen interest in news and happenings around the world.
