London: Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was heavily involved in the Mumbai attack and held meetings with terrorist leaders over the operation that killed more than 160 people, Pakistani American David Headley has told Indian interrogators.
ISI's support came out in a 109-page report prepared following the interrogation of Headley, who was arrested last year for identifying targets in Mumbai to be attacked by the pro-Pakistan Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Headley has spoken about dozens of meetings between ISI officers and senior militants from LeT who carried out the savagery in Mumbai. Pakistan initially denied all links to the Mumbai massacre but later admitted that the only terrorist caught in Mumbai was indeed a Pakistani.
A key motivation for the ISI in aiding the attacks was to bolster militant organisations with strong links to the Pakistani state and security establishment who were being marginalised by more extreme radical groups, the media report quoted Headley as saying.
During questioning, the American claimed that at least two of his missions were partly paid for by the ISI and that he regularly reported to the spy agency.
Headley was interviewed for over 34 hours by Indian investigators in the US prison in June this year. He has described how "a debate had begun among the terrorist outfits" and "a clash of ideology" had led to splits.
"The aggression and commitment to jihad shown by several splinter groups in Afghanistan influenced many committed fighters to leave (LeT)," Headley was quoted as saying. "I understand this compelled the LeT to consider a spectacular terrorist strike in India."
Headley said the ISI hoped the Mumbai attack would slow or stop growing "integration" between groups active in Kashmir, with whom the agency had maintained a long relationship, and "Taliban-based outfits" in Pakistan and Afghanistan which were a threat to the Pakistani state, the Guardian report said.
"The ISI... had no ambiguity in understanding the necessity to strike India." The aim of the agency was "controlling further split in the Kashmir-based outfits, providing them a sense of achievement and shifting... the theatre of violence from the domestic soil of Pakistan to India".
He also described a meeting with a "Colonel Kamran" from the military intelligence and a string of meetings with a "Major Iqbal" and a "Major Sameer Ali". He claimed that he was given $25,000 by his ISI handler to finance one of eight surveillance missions in India.
Islamabad has denied its involvement in the Mumbai strike that seriously strained its relations with New Delhi. An ISI spokesperson told the Guardian that the accusations of the agency's involvement in the Mumbai attack were "baseless".
Pakistani American terror suspect David Headley has told Indian investigators that he had scouted Delhi for another strike at potential targets, including the prime minister's residence and key defence complexes.
Headley, who has confessed his role in plotting the 2008 Mumbai attack with Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders and was arrested last year in the US, told a team of Indian interrogators in a US prison that he was in the Indian capital in March 2009, said sources who refused to be identified.
During his Delhi trip -- four months after 10 terrorists sneaked into Mumbai from the sea and killed 166 people over three days -- Headley videographed 7 Race Course Road, the prime minister's official residence, Raksha Bhavan and the National Defence College (NDC) in the heart of the capital, the sources disclosed.
A four-member team of Indian investigators interrogated Headley in June this year after he entered into a plea bargain with the US government offering to be available to foreign investigators for any questioning related to terror plots he was scheming with the LeT and Al Qaeda.
The 49-year-old Pakistani-born revealed that he found "minimal security" at the NDC that appeared a "vulnerable target".
The security cover at the prime minister's residence appeared too tough to break through and his Pakistani handlers were not interested in striking at the Raksha Bhavan, an office-cum-residential complex for defence personnel, Headley is believed to have told the investigators.
He later spoke to his co-conspirator, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, another Pakistani terrorist who is also in a US prison. He said his Pakistani handlers were more interested in attacking the NDC and had even started working on the idea with a help from an unknown person in Nepal, sources said.
Source: IANS