Chicago: A self-confessed key plotter of the Mumbai terror attack, David Coleman Headley Wednesday testified that he identified ancient Somnath temple in India and Bollywood among several more targets he "liked" for future terror attacks.
Taking the stand for the third day in the trial of Pakistan-born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, star prosecution witness Pakistani-American Headley said he identified the favoured targets to his one-time friend.
According to a transcript of their phone conversation read out aloud in court by Headley, four new targets favoured by him included Somnath temple in Gujarat, Bollywood, the Shiv Sena office in Mumbai and the Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Rana "told me to stop doing what I was doing and he was offering me a job at his farm," Headley said.
"I spoke to Rana about four targets and he said 'If you did those four targets, you are still not going to stop'," Headley said recalling the conversation.
Rana also said that nine of the 10 Mumbai attackers who died should be given Pakistan's highest military bravery award, Nishan-e-Haidar, Headley testified.
Headley also talked about his conversation with another of his Pakistani handlers Pasha and the new email he would create.
According to the transcript of Pasha-Headley conversation, read out by the federal prosecutor, Headley said: "Major Iqbal went to my house in Lahore in Pakistan, my employee told me over there."
Headley also testified that handlers of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) guided the attackers on phone and even asked them to change tactics to challenge the advancing commandos as they watched the 2008 Mumbai carnage live from Pakistan.
Headley said his LeT handler Sajid Mir, who was in Karachi during the Mumbai attack, was in contact with the attackers via phone and he was watching TV coverage of the siege and seeing what was going on in India.
Headley wanted assignment in Kashmir
David Coleman Headley, a self-confessed key plotter of the Mumbai terror attack, wanted an assignment in Kashmir after completing training in Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) camps there. But he was not given his favourite assignment as the Lashkar leaders wantedto use him for so mething else, according to court documents released during the ongoing trial in Chicago of Pakistan-born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana.
The documents say Headley began attending LeT training camps in Pakistan in February 2002 and by December 2003 had attended five separate courses.
His training courses included Lashkar's philosophy, use of weapons and grenades, combat tactics, survival skills and counter surveillance methods.
After completing training in several camps, Headley became acquainted with a senior member of Lashkar, Zakir Lakhvi ("Zaki"), who was responsible for Lashkar's military operations, the documents say.
Headley was anxious to be assigned an operational assignment in Kashmir, but Zaki told him he was saving him for a different assignment.
In July 2004, Headley attended a leadership course with Lashkar senior and junior leadership, prosecutors said.
During that course, Zaki made a presentation regarding the killing of an Indian citizen who accepted money from Lashkar, but was then believed to have provided information about Lashkar activities to the Indian military.
Zaki showed a computer animation depicting how the killing was carried out.
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