The issue of granting India access to David Coleman Headley, now in federal custody in Chicago on charges of doing the groundwork for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, is being taken up by the United States government at the highest level, Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer said on Monday.
“I just had a very successful meeting with Home Minister P. Chidambaram where I talked about working very closely for cooperation between government of India and government of the U.S. on counter-terrorism issues,” he told journalists here.
On granting India access to the Pakistani-origin American, who recently pleaded guilty before a U.S. court, the Ambassador said: “This is an issue that is being taken up at the highest levels of the U.S. government day and night constantly.” Under the plea agreement, Headley can participate in investigation through videoconferencing, deposition or Letters Rogatory.
“As former commissioner of the 9/11 [September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York] probe, somebody who has experienced loss of life, we lost 3,000 people, we empathised here in Mumbai with the Indian people the tragic loss of life here and we want to make sure that justice is brought forward to all those involved in that kind of attack,” Mr. Roemer said.
“It is in both government of India and government of the U.S.' interest to work together to protect the common people from attacks wherever they may come from.”
