Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, Dec 11 (IANS) The US considers it “premature” to say how it would respond to India’s request for the extradition of Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, charged with scouting targets in Mumbai for the 26/11 terror attack.

“Obviously, we do have an extradition treaty with India, but how that will work going forward, I think that’s premature,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said when asked whether the US would accede to the Indian request.

“As to the precise disposition of this case, at the present time, I’ll defer you to the Department of Justice,” he said noting that the Headley case was before a Chicago court.

Headley, son of an American socialite mother and a Pakistani diplomat changed his given name of Daood Gilani in 2006 to avoid suspicion about his Pakistani origin, according to the charges filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Chicago court.

Headley and Pakistan born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, with whom Headley had gone to a military school in Pakistan, are also charged with scheming to attack a Danish newspaper that in 2005 published 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad and triggering widespread anger in the Muslim world.

Asked if India had expressed any concern about where US military aid was going as both Headley and Rana had links with the Pakistani military, Crowley said: “We are in an ongoing discussion with the government of Pakistan and the government of India trying to reassure both that they have nothing to fear from each side.

“We understand that for the region to advance, … it’s very important for us to reduce tensions and to have all sides have a clearer picture of the intentions of the other,” he said.

Crowley also declined to link the Headley case with the arrest of five young Muslim Americans arrested in Pakistan on the suspicion of possibly trying to meet up with a terror group implicated in the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.

“There is an emergent case in Chicago. I would not link that case and these individuals in any way,” he said when asked about the implications of the arrest of five on suspicion of terrorist links.

“Because all we know at this point is you have five individuals from the Washington, D.C. area who have made their way to Pakistan, I would not draw any inferences as to what that means.”

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)