26/11 linked to the ISI: US research group

Indian investigators have linked the Mumbai attacks to Pakistani intelligence, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.

Indian investigators’ interrogation of the alleged mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks - David Coleman Headley - has yielded key disclosures linking terrorists behind the 26/11 tragedy to Pakistani intelligence, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.

Headley, who in March reportedly pleaded guilty to 12 federal terrorism charges including providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) (the banned Pakistani organisation that India believes is behind the Mumbai attacks) also disclosed the names of the terrorist handlers who orchestrated the attacks from Pakistan, the paper quoted a Washington-based research group - Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) – as saying.

Headley reportedly told investigators from India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) that LeT worked hand-in-glove with rogue elements tied to the ISI.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), has also been identified by Headley as the “mastermind” of the Mumbai attacks, the paper stated.

The research group is further reported to have said that the close ties between LeT and the ISI have been detailed in the 11th dossier of evidence documenting Headley’s confessions related to the attacks. The dossier, it said, details LeT operative Headley’s meetings with his handlers in Pakistan, including JuD’s Hafiz Saeed, retired Pakistani major Sajid Mir and ISI officials in Muzzaffarabad and Lahore in the months leading up to the Mumbai attacks.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2010.