Yousaf Raza Gilani visited my house in Pakistan in 2008: David Headley

Mumbai attacks plotter says former premier's visit came a few weeks after his father's death

A Pakistani-American who helped plot the deadly 26/11 Mumbai attacks claimed on Friday that then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited his house in Pakistan in 2008.

Deposing before a Mumbai court from an undisclosed location in the United States, David Headley said the former premier’s visit came a few weeks after his father’s death in December 2008, Times of India reported.



Addressing the court, Headley further claimed that his father who passed away in 2008 in Pakistan, was a retired director general of Radio Pakistan and had opposed his association with the banned outfit.

Referring to the Pakistan, India war in 1971, Headley confessed that he has 'hated' India since he was a child because Indian planes bombed his school in 1971. This was Headley's second set of depositions.

On Thursday, the Pakistani-American told a court in Mumbai that he had attempted to kill late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

“I have no first-hand knowledge but I think an attempt was made by LeT (Lashkar) to kill Bal Thackeray,” David Headley said.



Headley further said that the man who made the attempt was arrested by the police but he later managed to escape. “I don’t know how this attempt was made. I think the person (who was sent to kill Thackeray) was arrested but he managed to escape from police custody. I don’t have first-hand knowledge about this though,” said Headley, who has agreed, as part of a plea bargain with the US, to testify in terror cases.

Further delving into details, Headley said that the LeT had tried to kill Thackeray even before the 26/11 attacks.

Headley revealed that he was arrested by American officials in 1988 and 1998 on charges of drug trafficking and that after his second arrest, the Drug Enforcement Authority (DEA) of the US financed his trip to Pakistan.