Headley told to scout possible terror targets post 26/11

Encouraged by the role played by David Coleman Headley in the Mumbai attacks without coming to notice of intelligence agencies, LeT had put the Pakistani-origin Chicago resident on another job - surveillance of Jewish Chabad houses (a Jewish community center, serving the needs of the entire Jewish community) in several Indian cities - for possible future strikes on the lines of 26/11.

The fresh indictment filed against Headley along with his school friend Tahawwur Hussein Rana, alleged that in March 2009, Headley conducted surveillance of various targets in India, including the National Defence College in New Delhi and Chabad houses in several cities of the country.

Names of the cities have not been disclosed by the federal prosecutors.

According to the chargesheet, the successful surveillance of terrorists targets for the Mumbai attacks by Headley also encouraged Ilyas Kashmiri of Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islam and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired Pakistani Major, to seek his services for surveillance of potential terrorist targets in Denmark against a newspaper which had published cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.

In late December 2008 and early January 2009, after reviewing with Rana how he had performed the surveillance of the targets attacked in Mumbai in November 2008, Headley advised the Canadian national of the planned attack on the ’Jyllands-Posten’ newspaper and his intended travel to Denmark for the purpose of performing surveillance of its facilities.

Headley obtained Rana’s approval and assistance to identify himself as a representative of his school friend’s First World immigration service firm, to falsely represent that the company was planning to open an office in Copenhagen, and to gain entry to Jyllands-Posten’s offices by falsely expressing interest in placing an advertisement in the paper.

Before leaving Chicago, Headley and Rana both made business cards that identified them as representatives of the Immigrant Law Centre.