David Coleman Headley’s deposition in court on Friday showed he played a crucial role in the 26/11 attacks and his advice was immensely useful to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and helped them avoid making mistakes so that their terror plan did not fail.
Headley advised LeT not to attack Siddhivinayak temple or the Navy Air Station as they are heavily guarded and told the LeT leadership that if they were targeted the complete manpower of attackers would be required at one place and they would not be able to target other places. He also discouraged LeT on selecting Gateway of India as a landing site as with the high security at the site, there was a possibility of them getting tracked.
During his deposition on Friday Headley also identified the photograph of Ajmal Kasab, the lone arrested attacker of 26/11 who was later convicted and hanged to death, in court. However, Headley uttered his name with respect and added “Rehmatullah Alaih” to his name while taking his statement on record. When special judge G.A. Sanap asked him what he had said along with Kasab’s name, he said it meant “may God forgive him.”
Headley’s testimony on Friday showed that his presence of mind proved a boon for LeT in attacking Mumbai in November 2008. He said that when he visited Siddhivinayak temple to conduct a reconnaissance he noticed a man selling red and yellow coloured wrist bands outside the temple. When Headley inquired about this he came to know that people practicing Hindu faith wear this on their wrist so he purchased around 15 to 20 wrist bands and handed them over to Sajid Mir in Pakistan. Headley explained about the bands to them and also said if attackers would wear them on their wrists it could help them hide their cover. He said that nobody had asked him to buy these bands but when he saw them he bought them and the attackers were wearing them at the time of the attacks.
Explaining about choosing Cuff Parade as a landing site for attackers he said, “I felt it gave a technical advantage because it was covered by shanties and there were small hutments.”
He not only selected the site but also helped LeT avoid other risky landing sites. He said that in June 2008 when he went to Pakistan he had met Major Sajid Mir, Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Pasha, Abu Kahafa and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi to show his recommendations about targets and landing sites.
During one of the meetings Lakhvi had said that he thought Gateway of India was a better landing site because it was closer to the target but Headley advised against it. “I said it would not be a good idea because to reach Gateway of India the attackers would be required to cross certain points in their route where Naval installations are situated and there was a chance that they could be detected,” said Headley. He also said that they agreed to his suggestions.
Headley also advised against attacking the Siddhivinayak temple and Naval Air Station. “I discouraged them to attack Navy Air Station and Siddhivinayak temple because both are heavily guarded places,” said Headley. He also added, “I told them that if they target these two places than the entire manpower of 10 people would be required to be used at one place only.” Since the idea was to divide the attackers in a group of two, his second advice was also accepted.
