New Delhi : David Headley’s fresh revelations on the 2008 Mumbai terror attack will help Indian agencies nail his Pakistani handlers and take the case to a “very logical conclusion”, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said on Monday. Pakistan has been until now slow in prosecuting one of the Laskhar masterminds Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and his four associates who gave instructions to the 10 Pakistani attackers who sailed into India from Karachi. Pakistan has attributed the slow progress in the case to the lack of evidence in nailing the five accused. India believes that the Headley revelation will help in proving its claim that the Lashkar militants were involved in plotting the attack. “It will lead us to a very logical conclusion of the case,” Rijiju said. “The difference between the state and non-state actors will come to an end after this statement.” This, of course, will not be the first time India will be handing over dossiers to Pakistan. New Delhi is also expected to mount pressure on Pakistan through the United States to take action against Hafiz Saeed who has a USD 10 million reward on his head. “Headley is now in American custody, so the US must take cognizance of his statement and take action against Saeed,” an official said.
Clean Chit To Azhar? Meanwhile, a team, constituted by Pakistan to investigate the attack on Pathankot last month, has concluded that there is no substantive evidence to suggest that Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant group, had masterminded the deadly assault. Officials who are privy to the SIT investigations told a Pakistani newspaper that authorities have conveyed to New Delhi that there was no substantial evidence that could prove the involvement of Maulana Azhar in the Pathankot assault, reports ANI.
Hafiz Saeed Identifed
Prosecution witness and approver David Coleman Headley, 55, on Monday identified Hafiz Saeed from a photograph shown to him in the court saying, “Yes that is Mr Hafiz Saeed who had lectured me and other recruits on jihad against India.’’ The American national of Pakistani origin also said he was motivated to join the terror group after he heard a speech by the “head of Lashkar.”
Despite India’s protests and a 10 million dollar bounty announced by the US, Saeed remains a free man in Pakistan, and keeps making vitriolic speeches against India. The Lashkar, Headley disclosed in his deposition, has carried out terror attacks all over India and its avowed goal is to “assist the people of Kashmir in fighting the Indian Army.”
