Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) The government has given the go ahead to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s premier anti-terror probe body, to file charges in a court against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist David Headley and his Pakistan handlers for their alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Highly placed sources said Wednesday that the NIA would soon be filing a charge sheet against nine accused, including Headley and LeT militant Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal, said to be in the Pakistan Army who also allegedly works for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Headley’s accomplice and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana is also expected to be named in the charge sheet for allegedly plotting the terror attack that left 166 people dead in the three-day carnage in India’s financial hub.

“The charge sheet has been finalised. The home ministry has sanctioned to file the charges in an NIA court,” a source privy to the latest development told IANS.

Also to be named in the charge sheet are LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and top commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

Lakhvi is already in a Pakistani jail undergoing trial for the terror attack.

They are alleged to have conspired with another Lashkar terrorist, Mohammed Amjad Khan, in a plot named Karachi Project to strike at selected Indian targets.

Indian security agencies allege that the Karachi Project was sponsored by Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.

Others likely to figure in the charge sheet are Lashkar terrorists - Muzammil Bhat, Abu Hamza, Abu Qahafa and Mohammed Usman.

They are alleged to have trained and instructed the 10 Pakistani terrorists who sailed into Mumbai to launch the strikes at multiple points on Nov 26, 2008. The NIA has been probing the Mumbai case since it was formed soon after the terror attack.

The NIA has based its charges on inputs from the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the CIA and the interrogation of Headley by sleuths of NIA in the US.