Thaindian News

Chicago, May 25 (IANS) A key plotter of the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani American David Coleman Headley, has testified that he was very pleased with the carnage by Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Testifying as prosecution’s star witness in the trial of his one time friend, Pakistan born Canadian Tahawwur Rana, Headley said Tuesday that he learned about the attacks in Mumbai through a text message telling him to turn on the TV.

Asked by prosecutor Daniel Collins what he thought about the news coverage, Headley said in his monotone voice: “I was pleased.”

Headley testified that when he met Rana in Chicago on his return to the US Dec 8, 2008, they discussed the attacks.

“I said to him, ‘Now we’re even with India’,” Headley said. Rana said “‘They deserved it’,” Headley testified.

Headley also claimed he told Rana all about the terrorist attack plot five months before it was carried out, including a strategy of shooting hostages to prevent any struggles and then beheading them later, to which Rana replied, “Good,” according to Headley.

Rana, 50, even met in Dubai Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, also known as “Pasha”, a retired Pakistani Army major tied to the bombings, weeks before the attack, Headley said in response to a question from Collins.

Headley went over extensive e-mails he shared with Rana as well as Sajid Mir, the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, and a Pakistani intelligence agency official who is also believed to have directed the attacks.

After the attacks, Syed even asked Headley via e-mail if Rana was “terrified or relaxed” by the bloodshed.

Rana was “very relaxed,” Headley said. He was trying to get Headley to calm down since Headley was nervous about being apprehended.

Rana told Headley he had “nothing to fear but God,” according to the e-mail.