Thaindian News

Chicago, May 26 (IANS) A Pakistani Navy man was present during discussions with his Pakistani spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, handler Major Iqbal, on landing sites and arrival of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists by sea for the Mumbai terror attack, David Headley told a Chicago court Thursday.

During cross examination by lawyers defending his long-time friend, Pakistan-born Tahawwur Rana, Headley also known as Daood Gilani said when visiting Pakistan, he always briefed Iqbal first at a Lahore safehouse.

Asked by Rana’s lawyer Charles Swift if: “When discussing the landing site, someone from the Pakistan Navy was present - clean shaved, military bearing, hair cut,” Headley replied in the affirmative.

Headley identified the Navy man as Abdur Rahman, but said he did not know anyone above Major Iqbal in ISI.

Major Iqbal, he said had a unique cell phone with a US number with which the ISI man contacted him when he was in India. Headley also believed that his LeT handler Sajid Mir had a separate handler in the ISI.

In 2006, when he met Major Iqbal, whom he identified as ‘Chaudhery Khan’, his ISI handler told him his LeT training was “not very good” and was “very elementary”, so he decided to give instructions to him at a two-storey safe house in a residential area of Lahore.

Headley also said he took videos of Taj Mahal Hotel and also inside Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai as per Major Iqbal’s planning.

Asked what was he looking for in identifying the landing site, Headley said: “Looking for something safe where we could not be detected.”

Headley said he went to the Taj to video the area several times, including once when he stayed in the Taj hotel on April 7, 2007 along with his second wife (from Morocco).