US court charges Headley for role in 26/11

HELD AND CHARGED: The Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Headley and Rana, are being held, is seen in Chicago.

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Chicago: Pakistan-origin American national David Coleman Headley was on Monday charged in a Chicago court with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people, including many foreigners.

The charges filed in the Federal Court in Chicago allege that Headley conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the November 26, 2008 terrorist attack.

Headley was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, provide material support to foreign terrorist plots, provide material support to terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.

The charges were announced by Patrick J Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Forty-nine-year-old Headley allegedly attended terrorism training camps in Pakistan maintained by LeT in the last decade and conspired with its members and others in planning and executing the attacks in both India and Denmark, federal law enforcement officials announced.

A retired major in the Pakistani military Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed was also charged with conspiracy in planning to attack a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, to murder and maim persons in a foreign country and providing material support to terror conspiracy.

Rehman allegedly participated in the planning of a terrorist attack in Denmark, coordinated surveillance of the intended targets, facilitated communications regarding the surveillance and planning with a member of Lashkar and (Ilyas) Kashmiri.

Headley, along with Chicago man Tahawwur Rana, was arrested in October for planning terror attacks in India on behest of LeT and against a Danish newspaper.

Through his attorneys, Headley has authorised the Justice Department to disclose that he is cooperating in the ongoing investigation of both the Indian and Danish terror plots.

He has remained in federal custody without bond since he was arrested in Chicago. No date has been set yet for his arraignment in US District Court in Chicago, according to a statement by the US Attorney, Northern District of Illinois.