Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s premier anti-terror probe body, is all set to file charges in court against Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist David Headley and his Pakistan handlers for their alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

According to highly placed sources, the charges are likely to be filed “this month end or early next month”.

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

The probe agency is also likely to name some Pakistanis in its charges, including LeT commander Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal, said to be in the Pakistan Army, the sources told IANS.

Also to be included in the chargesheet are LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and top commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. Lakhvi is already in a Pakistani jail undergoing a trial for the terror attack.

They are are alleged to have conspired with another Lashkar terrorist Mohammed Amjad Khan in a terror 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, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

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

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.

“Drafting of the chargesheet against Headley is in an advanced stage and we are hopeful of filing it within a month or early next month,” a source privy to the latest development told IANS.

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

The Pakistani-American is alleged to have filmed terror targets in India and passed on the graphics and other details to the LeT.

Headley, who is undergoing a trial in the US for plotting international terror plots, has entered into a plea bargain with the American authorities, according to which he won’t be extradited to any country for the charges.

Rana has been convicted by a US court - not for for his involvement in the Mumbai attack but for planning a terror strike in Denmark.