Mumbai, Feb 8 (IANS) Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) made two
unsuccessful attempts before wreaking havoc in Mumbai on November 26,
2008, in a terror attack that killed 166 persons,
terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headly told a Special TADA court
here on Monday.
In the first attempt to strike Mumbai in
September 2008, the terrorist's boat hit some rocks in the Arabian Sea,
resulting in loss of weapons and ammunition, but those on board
survived, Headley told TADA Court Judge G.A. Sanap via
video-conferencing from a US jail.
The second attempt was made
the following month, in October, with the same persons involved as in
the first one, but that also failed for unknown reasons, before the
third and successful attack was executed on November 26 that year, (in
which 166 persons were killed and hundreds more were injured), he said.
Headley
also identified in a picture his main contact in the LeT terror group
Sajid Mir and LeT founder Hafez Sayeed and said he was inspired by
Sayeed's fiery speeches to join the group in 2002.
Represented by
criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani at the TADA court, Headley said he
underwent his first training with LeT in 2002 at a camp in Muzaffarabad,
which is in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
About the motive behind
the crime, he said the terror attack was carried out to assist the
Kashmiris fighting against the Indian Army in the border state.
Earlier,
Headley, 56, said he was born on June 30, 1960, in the US and shifted
to Pakistan later where his name was Daood Sayeed Gilani.
Flanked
by three persons at an undisclosed location in the US -- his attorney
John, US attorney Sarah and a person identified merely as Bob -- Headley
was administered the oath at 7.30 a.m. and Special Public Prosecutor
Ujjwal Nikam started firing questions at him.
Headley provided
details of his passport and spoke of his seven to eight trips to Mumbai
and one to New Delhi between 2006-2008 before the 26/11 attacks. The
trips included seven via Pakistan and one via the UAE. He also made yet
another trip to Mumbai in July 2009, after the terror attack was
executed.
To a pointed question by Nikam, who is leading the
prosecution case, Headley named one person named Raymaond Sanders as a
visa consultant who helped him procure the Indian visa.
Headley
said most of the information on his visa application was false -- except
his birth date and place, mother's name and nationality and the
passport number -- so that he would not blow his cover.
"This is
the first time that a terrorist is deposing and tendering evidence live
in a foreign country. He will divulge the larger aspects of the 26/11
terror conspiracy, the people behind it and related aspects," Nikam said
on the eve of Headley's trial.
"The evidence coming out today
could be very significant," Jethmalani commented briefly on the
proceedings before the special court.
Headley's ongoing evidence
on Monday could help the prosecution nail the alleged co-conspirators in
the attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhi, the terrorists' handlers, the role and
involvement of other state and non-state actors, and the role of
arrested LeT activist Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, currently
in a Mumbai jail.
At the previous hearing on December 10 last
year, the special TADA court judge had pardoned Headley and made him an
approver in the case, subject to certain conditions.
Headley had already confessed to his role in the offences in the US for which he is seving a 35-year sentence.
The five-hour court proceedings were held here amidst tight security.
