US charges four Pakistanis as co-conspirators in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks
April 26th, 2011 - 11:32 am ICT by ANIChicago, April 26(ANI): Four Pakistani nationals have been charged as co-conspirators in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, according to US prosecutors.
The four Pakistanis were previously mentioned, but not named in indictments charging American David Headley and Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana with helping to identify targets in Mumbai.
It maybe recalled that ten gunmen from Pakistan arrived in Mumbai via sea route on November 26, 2008 and started firing indiscriminately at a busy railway station, a Jewish settlement, a popular café and two luxury hotels.
Several innocents were held hostage over the next three days and at least 166 people- including six Americans- were killed before Indian commandos smoked out the terrorists on November 28, 2008.
Headley and Rana have also been charged in a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that was never carried out, the Dawn reports.
Headley pleaded guilty in March 2010, and is cooperating with US investigators about taking several trips to India- and later to Denmark- to scout targets for the coordinated and deadly assault.
Rana has been held as a conspirator with Headley since his arrest in 2009, and his US trial is scheduled to begin on May 16.
All of the four newly indicted figures- Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal, and a fourth defendant known only by the alias “Major Iqbal”- are linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the terror group blamed for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, the report said.
However, none of them are in US custody, and all four are believed to be in Pakistan, the report added.
They have been charged with six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens and other charges related to the Mumbai attack, and providing support to the LeT, identified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
Mir has also been charged in the plot against Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper, aiming to revenge the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammad that enraged many Muslims and prompted protests. (ANI)
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