Witness links Pakistan spies to Mumbai attacks

DELHI: The Pakistani spy agency was involved in planning the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, a US court has been told.

David Coleman Headley, a US-Pakistani who has pleaded guilty to helping plan the massacre, told a court in Chicago that Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence supported the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and ''co-ordinated'' with it in the lead-up to the attacks.

In November 2008, militants staged at least 10 co-ordinated bombing and shooting attacks in Mumbai. They laid siege to parts of India's largest city for more than 60 hours, killing 166 people.

Headley was giving evidence in the trial of his childhood friend Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of helping Headley conduct surveillance before the attacks, as well as aiding a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Mr Rana has pleaded not guilty.

Headley agreed to testify against Mr Rana in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Headley joined Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001 and was taught hand-to-hand combat, surveillance and weaponry at training camps. He told the court Lashkar-e-Taiba and ISI regularly ''co-ordinated''. He said a ''navy frogman'' from the Pakistani government attended a planning meeting for the Mumbai attacks and he identified a co-defendant previously known only as ''Major Iqbal'' as a member of ISI.

''They co-ordinated with each other. The ISI provided assistance to Lashkar … financial and military,'' Headley testified.

The possibility of ISI's involvement in Mumbai was raised in US diplomatic cables shortly after the attacks, WikiLeaks has revealed. Pakistan has rejected any allegations it was complicit.

''ISI and serving officers did not provide support to David Headley and ISI had nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks. David was a double agent, he is not a credible witness,'' a spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Washington said.

Headley's evidence compounds embarrassment for Pakistan's military over a huge security failure on Sunday night when more than a dozen Taliban militants stormed a naval base in Karachi, killing 10 security personnel. They breached the supposedly secure military compound using only two ladders and held off troops in a gunfight for more than 17 hours, blowing up two PC3 Orion surveillance planes.

The breach has raised further concerns about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

'' [It] will create demoralisation and send the wrong message that this country is vulnerable,'' said a Pakistani analyst, Rahimullah Yusufzai. ''It will embolden militants and they will plan bigger attacks against high-value targets. Such incidents also strengthen those who claim Pakistan's nuclear assets are not safe.''

Also in Pakistan, speculation continues over the fate of the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, who has been reported killed by Afghan television. While Taliban spokesmen have dismissed the reports as ''pure propaganda'', he is, at least, missing.

''We can confirm that he has been disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, Balochistan [in western Pakistan],'' Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, said. ''So far we can't confirm if he is dead or alive.''