Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Cops may face severe punishment for not registering FIRs...Will it work?

Cops may face punishment for not registering FIRs

Vishwa Mohan, TNN 30 December 2009, 03:28am IST
NEW DELHI: The Centre plans to build in checks and balances in its proposal to prod states to ensure the police registers all complaints as FIRs by proposing punitive action against cops who fail to register cases as well as deterrents for false cases intended to harass innocents.

Apart from amendments to the existing laws, Centre is also considering proposals like e-registration of FIRs through public kiosks to encourage transparency and better access to the police system. Cops who fail to register an FIR after receiving a complaint may even face imprisonment with the government mulling stringent measures.

At present an official can be suspended for dereliction of duty but a measure specific to registration of FIRs might be considered. The need for such penalties has also figured in PMO discussions on police reforms. Some experts feel changes might be needed in the IPC itself. In the case of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention) of Atrocities Act, a police official who "wilfully" neglects his duty in registering a case can face between six months to a year in prison.

Elaborating the Centre's proposals, a senior home ministry official said, "The idea is to ensure all complaints are treated as FIRs by cops if someone approaches them with information of a crime." Keeping in mind the possibility of motivated complaints and score-settling, the government is planning to amend the law to punish such offenders. "Besides contemplating changes in CrPC to act against erring cops, the government is also mulling the option of making more stringent the existing provision for deliberately making false and fabricated complaints to harass somebody," the official said.

Though the existing law under Section 154 of the CrPC makes it mandatory for cops to register an FIR, the absence of "stringent punitive action" fails to ensure its implementation. The cop who fails to register an FIR currently only faces action under departmental misconduct, which may even mean dismissal but hardly ever does. However, there is no provision of putting such cops behind bars in cases of non-registration.

Former Haryana Police chief B R Lall agreed. He said: "More stringent punishment will ensure implementation of Section 154 of the CrPC. Non-registration of an FIR by a policeman is a sin. Whosoever fails to register an FIR should certainly be punished severely."

Lall, who himself presented a detailed paper on compulsory registration of FIR during the All India Police Science Congress a decade ago, said the proposed amendment would certainly act as a deterrent.

Besides the amendment in the CrPC, the government is also mulling an option of bringing changes in IPC by inserting a clause of more stringent action so that people do not file false and fabricated complaints. At present, Section 182 and 211 of the IPC deal with this aspect. While Section 182 provides for jail term of six months in case of "false information", Section 211 talks about imprisonment upto two years in case of "false charge of offence made with intent to inure".

An official said: "More stringent punishment under these two sections will deter people to lodge any false complaint. As a result, only genuine complainants will come to police." He, however, admits that merely changes in law will not ensure that this system works effectively. "We are, therefore, also planning to introduce the system of filing e-registration of FIRs across the country taking all the states and Union Territories (UTs) on board."

Welcoming the move, retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi said: "Helping people to register crime is also important. We certainly need to finally include e-complaints as accepted FIRs". Bedi, as the then chief of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), had also recommended the concept of e-registration of FIRs to the home ministry three years ago.

Taking a cue from the recommendations, including one made by the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), the home ministry will ask the states to explore this option. The ARC, in its fifth report, has recommended setting up outposts (kiosks) and also "call centres" to facilitate lodging of complaints.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzMwI0FyMDExMDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Govt to keep tabs on all gun owners.........Soon, private firms may get entry into ordnance sector

TIGHTENING NORMS
Centre To Rework Ammunition Policy To Curb Misuse
Vishwa Mohan /TNN
New Delhi: Amid reports of many arms licence holders misusing their legal weapons in one or the other way, the Centre has come out with a comprehensive draft to bring changes in the existing arms and ammunition policy for individuals — suggesting scores of new provisions ranging from setting up a national database of licensees to making the police verification exercise strict and mandatory. At present, the Centre has no data which can show how many people in the country have arms licences and what kind of weapons they have as the existing Arms Act does not any provision requiring a licensing authority to maintain the required records.... http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMjcjQXIwMDgwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Soon, private firms may get entry into ordnance sector
Vishwa Mohan /TNN
New Delhi: Big Indian private companies may soon be allowed to manufacture automatic and semi-automatic weapons for defence, central paramilitary and state police forces. The home ministry recently proposed that companies, with FDI upto 26% or without it, be allowed to manufacture arms on a limited scale. Such private companies will, however, not be allowed to sell the weapons in the local market through arms dealers. They will supply them to state agencies on tendering basis or may export them. At present, such weapons are only produced by public sector ordnance factories. Besides, the requirement of the forces are met through imports from various countries.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMjcjQXIwMDgwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Friday, December 25, 2009

War against Maoists...Change in tactics.....

Anti-Maoist op plan redrawn
Focus Shifts From All-Out Action To Precision Strikes To Spare Tribals

Vishwa Mohan /TNN

New Delhi: In a shift from its earlier plan to go all-out against Maoists after the Jharkhand polls, the Centre on Thursday asked states to go for “precision strikes” wherever needed without affecting the daily lives of tribals living in Naxal-infested zones.
Though ongoing operations against the ultras will continue, the intensity will not be stepped up as such a move is likely to alienate the local population, besides driving them towards Maoist ideology.
“Security forces will conduct operations in such a way that the rebels can think about surrendering instead of being on the offensive to save their own lives,” said a senior home ministry official, adding the idea is “not to alienate tribals”.
A change in strategy, giving impetus to development activities in Naxal-hit areas, was discussed in a meeting of police chiefs and chief secretaries of affected states with home minister P Chidambaram and home secretary G K Pillai.
Chidambaram is learnt to have told the state representatives to concentrate on development work as lack of it not only affected the local population but also made the areas vulnerable to Naxal violence.
Though the home minister also took stock of the preparedness of security agencies to continue with their ongoing joint anti-Naxal operations at junctions and tri-junctions of affected states, he is believed to have told them to intensify such action only in areas where the Maoists continue to indulge in violence.
An official said: “Against the earlier plan to first clear the area of Maoists before launching development activities, the chief secretaries were told to chalk out civic activities plan taking security forces on board so that both operational as well as economic activities can go hand in hand.”
It is believed that the Centre made the change after getting feedback from affected states where tribals found themselves caught between the rebels and security forces during operations. It is learnt that in such a situation, the local population was driven towards the Naxals for safety.
DGPs and chief secretaries of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa attended the meeting. Later, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh met Chidambaram and discussed progress on operational and development front......http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzI1I0FyMDE3MDE=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Nothing called a Green Hunt....

17000 more troops for anti-Naxal operations

Vishwa Mohan , TNN 19 December 2009, 04:58am IST

NEW DELHI: With Jharkhand assembly polls coming to an end on Friday, the Centre is set to send an additional 17,000 paramilitary personnel to states to step up their anti-Naxalite operations under its plan of a “major offensive” against Red ultras in all affected states.

Though the operation is underway in Chhattisgarh, the idea is to extend it simultaneously at the junctions and tri-junctions of the affected states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra. A senior home ministry official said the states already had 58,000 paramilitary personnel — drawn from CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and CoBRA — at their command. The additional deployment would increase the strength of central forces for the anti-Naxalite operation to nearly 75,000.

Stating that there is nothing called a “Green Hunt” as such, which could have possibly been coined by some state police for some local operation, the official said the home ministry was already on track to pursue its plan of a “major offensive” against the ultras. The Jharkhand polls, which saw the deployment of nearly 40,000 paramilitary personnel, made the Centre postpone the simultaneous operation for a couple of months, but there was hardly any period when the forces were not after Naxals in one or the other affected state, he added.

“Operations are supposed to be launched secretly so that the forces can catch the ultras offguard. We are on the job and we will expand the area of operation gradually,” said a senior CRPF official, adding its a “long haul”.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Moroccan wife (?) had visited suspect (David Coleman Headley aka Daood Gilani) in Mumbai




Vishwa Mohan\TNN

New Delhi: Indian investigators trailing footprints of US-based terrorist David Coleman Headley have found that his then wife — a Moroccan national — had once visited him during his trip to Mumbai and stayed with him for one night at the Taj in 2007. Though sleuths have no definite information as to where this woman is currently located, they suspect that she had visited at the behest of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to hand him “certain stuff” including fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) and collect something — possibly surveillance details of the terror targets — from him----- http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMTgjQXIwMTUwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Rana lauded LeT for 26\11: FBI...LeT operative claimed to be a Mahatma follower in bid to escape conviction




Vishwa Mohan TNN

New Delhi: As effrontery goes, few can beat it. US-based Lashkar jihadi Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an accomplice of David Coleman Headley, has claimed to be a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi in order to escape conviction.
Rana, who along with Headley is at the centre of a widening probe into Lashkar’s jihadi network, has said that he believes in non-violence, is a member of Iqbal Society and his beliefs were similar to those of Gandhi.
The FBI document against him has demolished the facade by marshalling evidence that proves that Rana, just like Headley, was aware of the 26/11 plot and supported it. It also says that Rana knew the retired Pakistan army officer Abdur Rahman Hashim Syed alias Pasha who was Headley’s direct link to Ilyas Kashmiri.
The FBI has established this with recordings of Rana’s conversation with Headley post-26/11.....
And more (The Link):
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzE2I0FyMDE0MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

India irked by FBI caginess over Headley: "Why Didn't They Tell us When He visited India in March?'




Vishwa Mohan TNN

New Delhi: India’s suspicion that the US is not coming clean on David Headley, the USbased Lashkar jihadi who facilitated 26/11 by providing Ajmal Kasab and others with precise information about their targets, has deepened.
The growing disquiet in the government, which believes that Headley was a US agent who went rogue, was expressed by a senior official. “It is very strange that the US did not inform us of Headley’s visit to India in March this year when, by their own account, he had been under their surveillance since at least September 2008,’’ the official said, pointing out that India would have arrested the terrorist had it known about his identity.
“We suspect that the reluctance is because Headley was a double agent and the Americans may not like him to be exposed to Indian agencies,’’ the official said.....
The Link:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzE2I0FyMDAxMDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
AND MORE......
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzE2I0FyMDE4MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Pakistan raises more bunkers along border

Vishwa Mohan, TNN 13 December 2009, 10:05am IST
NEW DELHI: Ceasefire may be in force between India and Pakistan along International Border, but the neighbouring country has built as many as 19 new fortified concrete bunkers and 39 observation towers along the border till Nov this year — a move which has caused lot of unease on the Indian side.

What bothers New Delhi more is the fact that these new bunkers are not those “defensive bunkers” which Islamabad claims to have built recently to ward off Talibans from within its own territory. The information about the new bunkers was shared with the Union home secretary G K Pillai who, accompanied by police chief of Jammu & Kashmir Kuldeep Khoda and senior BSF officers, on Saturday visited border areas of Suchetgarh and Abdullian in Jammu region to review situation along the border.......(You may please read the link)----

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMTMjQXIwMTEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Go to jail or join jihad against India: ISI tells surrendered Taliban




Vishwa Mohan, TNN 7 October 2009, 12:13am IST

NEW DELHI: In a new shift in tactics, Pakistan is planning to push as many as 60 "surrendered" Taliban into Jammu and Kashmir to become part of the "jihad" against India. The ISI is said to have offered the extremists the option of either going to jail or crossing the Line of Control.
The "jail or jihad" option offered to the Taliban seems a useful diversion for ISI. The Pakistan military establishment has had to fight the Taliban, once its close allies in Afghanistan, but is looking to turn the situation to its advantage. Apprehensions in Indian security circles that the crackdown by the Pakistan army on Taliban — seen as a last resort after the jihadis turned their guns on the Pakistani state — could mean trouble in Kashmir are being proved correct. Not only have infiltration attempts by regular jihadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba gone up, the presence of Taliban poses a new threat. Highly placed sources said BSF and the Army had been alerted about the developments after intelligence intercepted talk about infiltration bids in the next 15 to 20 days.
"Although the Taliban is yet to successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset of winter," said a senior official. The infiltration is closely controlled and monitored by the ISI and Pakistan army which is often involved in the crossings. The issue cropped up as a major security concern during the two-day visit to Srinagar by a high-powered central team led by cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar and comprising home secretary G K Pillai, defence secretary Pradeep Kumar and other senior officials. Top security and intelligence officials deliberated over the move by state actors in Pakistan to utilize the Taliban for their objectives in Kashmir.
Taking note of the assessment, officials are learnt to have unequivocally noted during the reviews in Srinagar that there was no change in Pakistan's support to terror groups post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks......http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTAvMDcjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Is David Coleman Headley an American Agent who turned rogue?




TNN 27 November 2009, 06:40am IST

NEW DELHI: It's a plot that could be straight out of the bluff-and-double-bluff worlds created by John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth. Only, it seems to have played out in real life, to the tragic misfortune of hundreds of innocent people. The tantalising possibility that David Coleman Headley may have been a US undercover agent who turned rogue is vexing many here as American authorities keep the US-based Lashkar jihadi out of the reach of Indian investigators. To make the tale even more dramatic, Headley may just have provided American intelligence agencies information that prevented a Lashkar attack on Mumbai in September. The theory -- and it's still a theory -- is that Headley was used to infiltrate the Lashkar, but gradually went astray under the influence of the very terrorists he was supposed to be spying upon. Torn between conflicting loyalties, he may have continued to give information to his American handlers, and a tip-off by him may even have helped avert a Laskar attack orginally planned for September. But he seems to have commited fully to Lashkar shortly after that, which could be one reason why American agencies were caught napping by 26/11.
During his interactions in India, Headley frequently introduced himself as a CIA agent. But suspicions that he's a rogue agent stem more from the just-released information that Headley, a man with one green and one brown eye, could straddle America and Pakistan with ease despite a run-in with the law in the US. A recent profile in the New York Times said that in 1998, Headley (then known as Daood Gilani) was convicted of conspiring to smuggle heroin into US from Pakistan. ``Court records show that after his arrest, he provided so much information about his own involvement with drug trafficking which stretched back more than a decade and about his Pakistani suppliers that he was sentenced to less than two years in jail and later went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)," the NYT report said. This suggests that Headley had a deal with authorities in the US who allowed him to get away with mild punishment in exchange for a promise of cooperation. To many here, that also implies that he was a known entity to the counter-terror and drug enforcement authorities in the US. After 9/11, the walls between these agencies had come down because of the links between drugs and terrorism, particularly in the context of Pakistan-Afghanistan where there is a huge overlap between the functions of the DEA and CIA. Surprisingly, the FBI affidavit against Headley doesn't mention his tryst with the DEA. FBI's affidavit against Headley says that he changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Coleman Headley in 2006 to hide his history as an offender. As he told border police in August 2009, it was to give himself the freedom to travel undetected -- he said the new name aroused much less suspicion when he travelled. It is a fact that terrorists are masking their religious identity to get past the counter-terror surveillance, with terror groups seeking to recruit Caucasians for fresh strikes. But many doubt here that the mere switching of names could have worked in Headley's case given his brush with law but more because of the destinations he was flying to.
Given Pakistan's unquestioned reputation as the hub of global terror, people travelling to and from the country automatically pop up on the scanner at airports across the globe. Headley, to boot, would often meet his contacts in UAE -- a known rezendevous for terrorists and smugglers and a place that is of immense interest to law enforcement agencies. The doubters found it intriguing that ultra-sensitive agencies in the US did not find anything amiss about the entries on Headley's US passport. While the sceptics don't think they have an answer yet, they are inclined to look at the possibility of Headley being an undercover agent who, torn between the competing demands of the jihadi outfits he had been asked to infiltrate and his American handlers, went astray. Headley, by his own confession, joined Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2006 and received training in one of the terror camps run by the jihadi outfit. Those who subscribe to the "rogue agent" theory are inclined to believe that this was known to the Americans, always anxious to ferret out information from hard-to-penetrate terror groups. They also feel that US agencies were perhaps aware that last year, Headley was in India to recce targets for a Lashkar attack that it had originally planned for September -- as confirmed by Ajbal Kasab in his testimony -- and which was finally carried out on 26/11. Rather, they also suspect that Headley might have been the source of information that helped Americans warn of the attack planned for September last year. In their warning, which was passed on to Maharashtra government by Intelligence Bureau, the Americans had said that prominent installations in Mumbai were on the jihadis' target. As a matter of fact, the FBI alert made a specific mention of Taj and other hotels -- Marriott, Land's End and Sea Rock. It is felt that Headley's defection happened immediately afterwards and that is perhaps one of the reasons why Americans could not, unlike in September, sniff 26/11. The suspicion is reinforced by the fact that it was around this time that FBI put Headley under its surveillance, leading to his arrest on October 3 this year.
Suspicions are getting stronger as Americans delay giving Indian investigators access to Headley. The hope here is that Indian agencies would get their turn to talk to the terrorist after charges -- indictment in the American lexicon -- are framed against him on Jauuary 1. There is also the possibility that Headley has promised to sing on the condition that he is not exposed to interrogators from India. But during interactions on the issue, FBI has been unusually cagey about discussing Headley in detail -- odd on the part of the agency which swiftly warned of the attack Lashkar had planned in September and without whose help the breakthrough in the 26/11 probe would not have happened.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Girlfriends of David Coleman Headley...wife of Daood Gilani..!!!!!




http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-had-visited-Mumbai-with-Moroccan-woman/articleshow/5289070.cms

Headley-Rana: Dost dost na raha...




http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rana-was-duped-by-Headley-says-lawyer/articleshow/5248727.cms

Headley: Buck stops at Pak PMO




Question....It forced Pakistan to come out with more details, hitherto unknown to investigators.....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headleys-brother-PRO-of-Pak-PM-Gilani/articleshow/5276752.cms

Confirmation....clarification.....the interesting details....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pak-PMs-PRO-admits-he-is-Headleys-half-brother/articleshow/5280451.cms

Link with 26\11...still a mystery....




Direct link of Headley-Rana to the 26\11 Mumbai carnage is still unsubstantiated, but investigators (US FBI and India's NIA) do not have any doubt about the terror duo's being part of a "larger conspiracy"....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-Rana-may-have-been-part-of-26/11-plot/articleshow/5241252.cms

Visa firm as cover....the smart move of Headley....




He could simply get away with so many things under the 'cover' of running a litimate immigration service company...no one could doubt that an American known as David Coleman Headley was a white jihadi looking for his targets..... A GOOD\SMART COVER INDEED!!!....idea to befriend Rahul Bhatt in Moksha Gym in Mumbai was yet anothr smart move....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-used-visa-firm-job-as-cover/articleshow/5237206.cms

Tahawwur Hussain Rana: Is he a bigger catch?




Tahawwur Hussain Rana was a money-bag for Headley....Is he a bigger catch?.....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5227983,prtpage-1.cms

Headley and Bollywood: Poor Rahul Bhatt




Headley's Bollywood connection...an attempt to cover his covert operation

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-did-a-recce-of-defence-college-in-March/articleshow/5224301.cms
Rahul Bhatt's help is crucial......
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rahul-Bhatt-may-be-used-as-witness/articleshow/5240816.cms

David Coleman Headley: Delhi visit




Tracing his Delhi's footprints was real fun ----- cops did not know that Headley had visited\stayed in yet another hotel in Paharganj. Investigators knew that Headley had stayed in De Holiday Inn, but they didn't know about him moving to Hotel Anand....My visit to De Holiday Inn and interaction with the hotel staff could reveal more....His passport and visa details could come out in open for the first time...and so his subsequent visits to other cities....

Extradition buzz......Delhi Visit-----

1....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMDcjQXIwMDEwNw==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

2.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMTMjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

3.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMTMjQXIwMTUwMw==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

4.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMDYjQXIwMTEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

David Coleman Headley: Pakistan's link and Indian trips




November 7 -- Headley's links....
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-link-traced-to-Pak-2-LeT-men-arrested/articleshow/5205152.cms
Multiple trips to India.....for recce of terror targets??...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5216927,prtpage-1.cms
...And more....
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-was-in-India-on-recce/articleshow/5208195.cms

November 13 -- the extradition buzz...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-to-move-for-extradition-of-Headley-from-US/articleshow/5224592.cms

FBI's tryst with David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani




Initial findings.......

Citizens’ profiling may be frowned upon in a free society. But had it not been there for security reason in US, the terror duo of Pakistani origin would have carried deadly attacks on multi-location in India and a newspaper office in Denmark.
Careful analysis of immigration records kept in the US points at one important aspect of a traveler who had not only changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Coleman Headley but also been frequently traveling to UAE, Pakistan, India, Denmark and other European countries since 2006 despite having no substantial income. He had, in fact, been on multiple trips only after changing his name and acquiring new passport and here the joint terrorism task force (JTTF) smelt the rat.
It happened in late 2008 and the Headley chase begun through tracking his emails and telephone conversations including calls placed using long distance calling cards. More and more information came on the way including Headley’s cell phone, which was registered in the name of a deceased individual, – making it certain for the US sleuths that they had been chasing a person who was upto some big terror project.
Constant scanning of his Emails led the investigators to another person Tahawwur Hussain Rana. The background check had raised equally strong suspicion. As the sleuths moved forward, they landed up with more leads – a pointer to their contacts with one of the most wanted terrorists Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of the Azad Kashmir section of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami (HuJI) with links to Al-Queda. That lead had come to them late last year.

The chase subsequently got new dimension and the rest is history. After chasing him for over a year, the FBI sleuths had arrested Headley on October 3 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago just before he was to board his scheduled flight to Philadelphia – the final leg of his terror plot to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which had published 12 cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2005, enraging Muslims across the world.
FBI could have arrested Headley much before. But they did not want to lose the vital information, which he had been sharing\exchanging with US-based Rana and Pakistan based HuJI commander Kashmiri and LeT leaders Sajid Mir and Sheikh Abdul Rahman Saeed.
Though he was finally arrested on October 3, the FBI took care not to disclose the information till the time it could lay hands on the big fish of the entire network Rana who was the main financer of Headley.
They arrested Rana on October 18 in Chicago and told India what the US-based terrorists were upto. Besides attack on Danish newspaper, they had plan to attack on National Defence College in New Delhi in near future – most probably around the time of the 26\11 carnage anniversary.
Indian agencies, which had literally no clue of such big terror plan, suddenly came in action. Though the entire episode was made public by the FBI on October 27, the Indian agencies had done some ground work before. The probe, however, got some track when Headley’s Rahul (Bhatt) – son of film producer -- connection came into the media as stated by the FBI in its affidavits against the terror duo in Chicago court.

The mystery of Rahul continued till the time he himself approached the Mumbai Police and told them about the circumstances under which he met Headley through a gym trainer Vilas Warak. Headley had first befriended Vilas and through him he met Rahul whom he considered so important a ‘cover’ that he had repeatedly mentioned his name in the emails he exchanged with his Pakistani handlers.
The probe got new dimension when Headley’s Delhi visit came to light, high-lighting the inter-state ramification of the entire investigation. The probe, which had hitherto been done by Mumbai Police, was subsequently handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
With the trail gradually becoming clearer, the NIA sleuths with the help of different state police started reaching all the places, besides Mumbai and Delhi, where both Headley and Rana had stayed to finalise their nefarious design to attack India.
Kochi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Agra and Pune have also come to the picture. While reconnaissance master Headley visited all these cities to carefully map his targets during his multiple trips to India between 2006-09, his boss Rana had landed in Kochi in November last year under the cover of immigration service provider.
This lead came clearer when police found that the terror duo had put out advertisements in different newspapers in Kochi and Mumbai, stating Rana’s expertise in providing jobs and visa to skilled and semi-skilled workers from India.
As the probe progressed, the sleuths even came across evidences which also pointed the terror duo’s role in larger conspiracy behind 26\11. Though concrete evidence to this end is need to be corroborated, the NIA sleuths and intelligence agencies are currently focusing more on busting sleeper cells which might have been set up by the terror duo for future terror attack.
A top home ministry official said: “Instead of doing post-mortem of the 26\11 attacks, the investigators are focusing more on cracking the deadly sleeper cells. Idea is to prevent future attack. The rest will follow in due course”.
The entire episode also threw light on the ongoing cooperation between US and India on terror related information. Once the FBI will file its final charges against the duo in January next, India will approach the US for extradition of the terror duo. Till then, it is the time to crack their Indian connection to eliminate the lurking danger.

Mystery behind US-based terror duo of Pakistani origin: Daviad Coleman Headley (Daood Gilani) and Tahawwur Hussain Rana




FBI had arrested David Coleman Headley on October 3 and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana on October 18......USA, India, Denmark, Pakistan...and ofcourse Bollywood were their playgrounds...
Was Headley an American spy who turned rogue?...The mystery around this Jihadi is bugging Indian agencies...The stories are gradually being unfolded with number of missing links in between.

Will the true story ever come out in open?...Efforts are on with certain hits and misses.....

The terror duo's obsession with their Danish target----Has this obsession saved India?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/LeT-torn-between-Denmark-India/articleshow/5201574.cms