Chicago:
Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, friends from a military school in Pakistan and facing charges of conspiring 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, have not been in contact with each other or met despite being in the same federal lock-up.
"They are not in contact with each other at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre. They are not meeting or even eating in the same area," sources said.
Rana has pleaded not guilty to helping his old friend Headley in plotting the terror attacks in Mumbai that claimed 166 lives. He also entered the not guilty plea to charges of providing material support in the Denmark terror plot and to the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Rana's friendship with Headley dates back to the Pakistani military school known as Cadet College Hasan Abdal, where both were students.
According to government affidavits, Rana and Headley maintained e-mail contact with other former students, including officers in Pakistan's military. They belonged to a group of the school's graduates who referred to themselves as the "abdalians" in Internet postings.
Prosecutors allege that Rana helped Headley by allowing him to use his immigration company as a cover for surveillance trips to India and Denmark.
After the January 14 indictment that charged Rana and Headley with plotting the Mumbai and Denmark terror plots, it was generally thought that the two would be brought in court together for their arraignments.