Washington: A team of Indian officials
from IB and RAW have arrived in the US for possible
questioning of terror suspect David Coleman Headley, a
Pakistan-born American national, who was arrested by the FBI
for plotting a major attack in India at the behest of LeT.
However, both Indian and American officials sought to
downplay the visit and remained tight-lipped on the schedule
of the Indian team.
They said they can "neither confirm nor deny" whether
the officials from Intelligence Bureau and Research and
Analysis Wing questioned Headley, who is currently under the
custody of Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago.
49-year-old Headley was arrested by the FBI last month
on charges of plotting a major terrorist attacks -- one in
India in association with Lashkar-e-Toiba and another one in
Denmark.
After the US announced his arrest, Home Minister P
Chidambaram had said in New Delhi that a team of officials
from the IB and RAW would visit the US to get more details
about the case from the FBI and also quiz Headley.
However, officials here refused to comment on the
team's visit.
"We can neither confirm this (IB and RAW officials
quizzing Headley) nor deny this," was the response from both the FBI and US Department of Justice.
The Indian Embassy in Washington, which is
coordinating the issue with the FBI and the State Department,
did not return calls on questions posed to them on the visit
of IB and RAW officials to Chicago.
Headley's school-time friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a
Canadian national of Pakistani origin, too was arrested by the
FBI on similar charges.
Both were resident of Chicago and have been lodged in
a downtown Chicago jail.
The busting of the terror plot – which revealed that
LeT was planning to use an American national in planning a
major terrorist attack in India – raised an alarm in India,
particularly given that LeT and Headley talked about targeting
a mysterious "Rahul".
The FBI in its chargesheet filed before a Chicago
court, said the Consul-General of Pakistan in Chicago
personally knows both Rana and Headley as all three of them
are from the same high school.
But the FBI affidavit does not say whether the Consul
General was aware or had any inclination of their terrorist
connection of Rana and Headley.
Headley and Rana were arrested by the FBI early this
month on charges of plotting a terrorist attack against the
facilities and employees of a Danish newspaper which had
published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
The chargesheet also indicates that LeT was planning
to use Headley for a major terrorist attack in India.
Bureau Report