Thaindian News

Chicago, June 1 (IANS) After his 2009 arrest, confessed Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley worked with FBI agents to try to engineer the capture of Sajid Mir, a suspected mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, according to testimony in a US court.

Headley aka Daood Gilani, Washington born son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, also proposed to US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) setting up Ilyas Kashmiri, another kingpin for a missile strike, ProPublica, an investigative news site reported Tuesday.

Headley testified in Chicago Federal court that during two weeks of interrogation in October 2009 he worked with FBI agents to try to lure Sajid Mir, a member of the Pakistan based Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group and a suspected mastermind of the Mumbai attack, out of Pakistan so he could be arrested.

The attempt failed, Headley testified, and Mir remains a fugitive.

Headley also offered to travel undercover to the tribal areas of Pakistan and present Ilyas Kashmiri, an Al Qaeda-connected leader indicted in the Denmark plot, with an ornate sword that Headley suggested could be outfitted with a homing device to set up a US missile attack, according to his testimony.

Kashmiri, commander of the Pakistani-based terrorist organisation Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), was behind a plan to carry out Mumbai-style shooting attacks in Britain, France, Germany and Denmark, ProPublica said citing counter-terror officials.

Tuesday’s cross-examination featured excerpts of Headley’s videotaped interrogation by FBI agents after his arrest last October.

In contrast to his restrained demeanour on the stand, Headley was animated, almost frantic, as he told the agents he wanted to help them make arrests in the case, the video showed, ProPublica said.