David Coleman Headley's life as an agent for multiple masters came to the fore on Friday as he revealed that after the "successful completion" of the 26/11 attacks with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, he was recruited by al-Qaida in a bid to strike terror in Delhi. "Yes, I was working for al-Qaida," he said in response to special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam's question. Deposing before special judge Govind A Sanap via video conferencing for the fourth day, he said the main target for the attack was the National Defence College (NDC) as it was a "high-value target due to the presence of senior officers."
The LeT, Headley said, was kept in the dark about the trip. "I knew they would not let me go. After the Mumbai attacks, media reports made them insecure and they feared I would be apprehended if I travelled to India," Headley said.
The terrorist, now deposing as an approver in the 26/11 case, said al-Qaida member Abdul Rehman Pasha, a retired Pakistani army officer, had reasoned that if the attack on the NDC was successful, they would be able to kill many more brigadiers than in any wars between India and Pakistan. Pasha had defected from the LeT.
Headley said the institute was also high on the target list of the LeT earlier. He revealed that after 26/11, he came back to India from Pakistan on March 7, 2009, on a 10-day trip at the behest of Ilyas Kashmiri, a senior alQaida operative. "Kashmiri mentioned a few places he wanted me to visit and conduct reconnaissance for the purpose of terror attacks. These included the NDC and Chabad house in Delhi and the Chabad houses in Pushkar and Goa," Headley said.
During the trip he had stayed at Holiday Inn and Anand Hotel. "Kashmiri told me to go to the college for defence officers. That was the primary target, Chabad House was second," he said.
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