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Visa denial saved Delhi from major LeT strike

NEW DELHI: The national Capital could escape a major terror attack last year when one of LeT's terrorists from Rawalpindi in Pakistan, who tried to come in through the legal channel, was denied an Indian visa. The terrorist was supposed to be in Delhi to carry out an attack on the National Defence College (NDC) at Tees January Marg -- a target recommended by US-born Lashkar terrorist David Coleman Headley to his bosses on the basis that a strike on the institution would have killed more Indian Army officers than those who died in all Indo-Pak wars put together. That the Capital was perilously close to being attacked by Lashkar, figures in the disclosures Headley made to the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) interrogators, who questioned him in Chicago in June. In his statement to the NIA, Headley essentially repeated what he had earlier told the US's Federal Bureau of Investigation. As already known, Headley had recceed several targets in the Capital -- the Sena Bhawan, Raksha Bhawan, vice-president's residence, Israeli embassy and Chabad House in Paharganj area. Headley also told his interrogators that he filmed the outer boundary of the Prime Minister's residence (7 Race Course Road) while videographing different routes leading to Raksha Bhawan near India Gate during his last trip to Delhi in March 2009. His claim was, however, disputed by the official sources here. Besides, the American terrorist had also disclosed in detail how the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI had been behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and made plans for other terror strikes in Delhi, Pune, Goa and Pushkar in due course. Headley told the NIA that when on mission, "he used to record images of potential targets on two memory sticks - one for Lashkar and the other for ISI". "Abdur Rehman (Lashkar operative) told me that a man from Rawalpindi was ready to carry out the attack (in Delhi) but he had trouble to get visa for India," the NIA interrogation report quoted Headley as saying about the LeT's Delhi mission. Referring to Rehman, Headley explained that the Rawalpindi man's visa application was turned down because "he had a long beard". "Abdur Rehman told him to shave his beard and he had reapplied for visa," the report said quoting Headley. During his interrogation, Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani, also disclosed Rehman's network in Nepal, which was activated to help the Rawalpindi man once he would reach Delhi for his mission. It appears from the interrogation report that the LeT operatives were more interested in attacking the NDC than other targets in Delhi. "I gave him (Abdur Rehman) the reconnaissance videos and we discussed each and every target in detail. I told Rehman that we could kill more Indian military officers in an attack on NDC than had been killed in all the wars between India and Pakistan," Headley told his interrogators, adding Rehman seemed to be more interested in attacking NDC. According to other details of his interrogation report -- published in British daily, The Guardian -- Headley, who travelled to Mumbai and stayed there for his surveillance mission, claimed that "at least two his missions were partly paid for by the ISI and that he regularly reported to the spy agency". He had described in details "dozens of meetings between officers of the main Pakistani military intelligence service, the ISI, and senior militants from the Lashker-e-Toiba group, who were responsible for the Mumbai attacks". Quoting from his interrogation report, The Guardian reported that Headley had described meeting once a "Colonel Kamran" from the military intelligence service and having a series of meetings with "Major Iqbal" and "Major Sameer Ali". "A fellow conspirator was handled by a Colonel Shah," claimed Headley. Though India has already asked Pakistan to take action against Major Iqbal -- an Army officer who had a number of meetings with Headley before 26/11 -- and Major Sameer Ali, the role of Colonel Kamran has so far not figured in Indian investigation. The Mumbai attacks could be successfully carried out only on the third attempt. The Guardian report says: "On the first attempt, the boat carrying the attackers to Mumbai foundered. On the second, it was nearly discovered by Indian coast guards. On the third, the attackers reached Mumbai, guided by the GPS coordinates Headley had provided". The British newspaper also reported how Headley and other militants when heard the news of attack on Benazir Bhutto, while they were in one of the meetings, expressed "their fervent desire that the former PM might die of her wounds".

                                                                                                               
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