2008 Mumbai attacks convict directly implicates Pakistan

One of those convicted in the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 told an Indian court Tuesday that the Pakistani InterServices Intelligence, or ISI, was directly involved in the attacks.

“The ISI provided financial, moral as well as military support,” said AmericanPakistani David Coleman Headley through videoconferencing from the United States, where he is serving a sentence, in his second appearance since Monday before a Mumbai court.

Headley, whose real name is Daood Gilanni, said he worked for the ISI and on many occasions met members of the Pakistani army, according to statements to the Indian press by public prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam.

Headley, who provided firsthand information about Mumbai to the terror outfit LashkareTaiba (LeT) in Pakistan from his seven trips to the city, is appearing as a witness to reveal details of the attacks, in return for having all charges dropped against him.

He spoke of having met seven members of the ISI, with more emphasis on commander Iqbal, whom he first met in 2006 in Lahore, in eastern Pakistan.

He revealed the commander asked him to recruit Indian soldiers to spy for the ISI and much later, Headley provided him a video he recorded from the second storey of Mumbai’s Taj Hotel, one of the main targets during the attacks.

The testimony supports the accusations made by the Indian government in 2009, holding the ISI as the mastermind behind the attacks.

The AmericanPakistani, sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in the U.S. for helping to chart the attack plans, had on Monday admitted to having received training in Pakistan from the LeT, which has been linked to the attacks.

Moreover, he detailed that in September and October 2008, there were two failed attempts to conduct attacks in Mumbai, before they finally succeeded in November the same year.

In the terror attack, which lasted three days, the attackers used assault rifles and grenades at a train station, a Jewish center and the iconic Taj Hotel, and killed 166 people and injured 237.