David Coleman Headley on Friday told the court that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) had two options for how to carry out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks — one was called “Egress Operation” in which attackers are sup
David Coleman Headley on Friday told the court that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) had two options for how to carry out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks — one was called “Egress Operation” in which attackers are supposed to run away after the attack and the second was “Stronghold Operation” in which attackers do not runaway and fight with law enforcing agencies till the end. LeT chose the second option for the 26/11 attacks.
“Sajid Mir had told me that Lakhvi Saab (Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi) had decided the Stronghold option,” said Headley. He also said that Abu Kahafa had explained him that if a person knows that he has to return then he will ‘not fight well’”.
He also said that in case the LeT had chosen Egress Operation than the scheme for attackers was that from Mumbai they would go directly to Kashmir and there they would fight with Indian troops.
While speaking about the people with whom he had established friendship in India Headley said he had met Rahul Bhatt, actor and son of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. “I had joined Moksh gym which was near my residence and I befriended Vilas Warke, in-charge of that gym,” said Headley adding that at a body building competition Warke had introduced him to Rahul Bhatt.
Headley had also stated that Major Iqbal was upset about Mumbai Airport not being selected as the target.
On the other hand , Headley also said that after the attacks al-Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri had asked him to visit Delhi and survey National Defence College and all chabad houses in India. According to Headley, he did not inform the LeT about this because he thought they would not allow him as they feared he could be arrested after the attacks.
However, in March 2009 Headley visited Delhi, Goa and Pune and surveyed NDC and chabad houses. However, he was later arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.
He also accepted that his wife Shaziya had sent him an e-mail congratulating him in code language on successful operation of the 26/11 attacks. This was in response to advocate Ujjwal Nikam’s question as why his wife had written “Congratulations on your graduation, ceremony was great,” when Headley had done only two years of college and not graduated.
The e-mail further said, “Yaar you did great.” Following this, Headley explained that in code language she congratulated him for the success of 26/11 attacks. In reply he also wrote, “Thank you janu, I worked hard to get good grades,” which meant that he worked hard to accomplish the mission.
