An al-Qaeda commander had sent Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley to Britain last year to seek money, weapons and manpower, a media report said on Monday.
One-eyed Ilyas Kashmiri sent Headley to meet two men from Derby in August last year, The Daily Telegraph reported quoting security sources.
The British contacts were supposed to assist Kashmiri’s associate with plans for a truck bomb attack on a Danish newspaper.
According to the report, it is feared the network has now been given the task of supporting Kashmiri’s plans for Mumbai-style attacks in Europe.
MI5, Britain’s internal intelligence agency, has been aware of Kashmiri’s network for more than a year but has not discovered active plans for the attacks.
But the Security Service did uncover Headley, who was then arrested at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on October 3 last year on his way to Pakistan to deliver surveillance videos to Kashmiri.
Headley admitted having conducted reconnaissance for the commando raid by 10 gun men on hotels and cafes in Mumbai, over three days in November 2008, in which 166 people were killed and more than 300 injured.
Two of Headley’s wives warned the American authorities years before the Mumbai attack that he was involved with planning terrorism against India.
In August 2005, his American wife met officials on three occasions and gave a detailed account of his activity with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). In December 2007, his Moroccan wife repeated the warnings to U.S. officials in Pakistan, the report said.
