US trial on Mumbai terrorism involves Pakistani official

May 15, 2011, 3:49 GMT

Washington (dap) - It has been hinted at for more than a year that a senior Pakistani intelligence official was suspected of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

On Monday, a trial opens in Chicago that implicates a man identified as Major Iqbal of the powerful Inter-services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) in the plot that killed more than 160 people during a three-day rampage in Mumbai in November 2008.

The trial opens amidst questions about the failure of ISI to have identified the presence of the late terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who apparently lived for years near a Pakistani military academy. Bin Laden was killed by a US military squad that secretly carried out the attack earlier this month.

In April, Iqbal and three chiefs of Lashkar-Taiba, the Pakistani terrorist group, were indicted in Chicago by US federal prosecutors on suspicion of involvement in planning the Mumbai attack. The US Justice Department kept the indictment under the public radar by not issuing the usual press briefings for such a high-profile trial.

The Chicago Tribune and Pro Publica, a private investigative journalism enterprise, reported on the court filings that were finally made public earlier this month.

The trial in Chicago involves charges against Tahawwur Rana, owner of a Chicago immigration consulting firm who has been charged with material support of terrorism in the Mumbai case. The main witness against him is David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American businessman-turned-militant who has pleaded guilty to helping to plan the attacks. In exchange for his cooperation, prosecutors have dropped their request for the death penalty.

Headley has told prosecutors that he convinced Rana to help arrange his scouting visits to Mumbai before the terrorist attacks by saying he had been 'asked to perform espionage work for ISI,' Pro Publica quoted Headley as saying in a court document.

'I told (Rana) about my assignment to conduct surveillance in Mumbai ... I told him that Major Iqbal would be providing money to pay for the expenses,' Headley is quoted as saying.

Monday's trial opening will involve jury selection. Rana's attorney contends that Rana is not a terrorist because he thought he was helping the ISI in a spying operation.

The terrorist attack in Mumbai left 173 people dead in the commercial center of India's largest city, including nine of the ten attackers. In February, the lone surviving gunman was sentenced to death by the High Court in Mumbai.

In October 2010, Interpol issued international warrants for five Pakistani nationals including two army majors, one of them identified as Major Iqbal. The notices were issued after a joint probe by India's National Investigation Agency and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation into Headley's role.

New Delhi has accused Pakistan's ISI of coordinating the Mumbai assault. Indian security officials have also blamed the Pakistani army of having trained the Mumbai attackers, but the charges were denied by Islamabad. Seven suspects are also on trial in a Pakistani anti-terrorism court.

In March 2010, Headley pleaded guilty to 12 federal terrorism charges that also involved a plot against the offices of a Danish newspaper.

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