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India not to interrogate Headley, Rana, says NSA | India's National Security Adviser M K Narayanan has said that New Delhi has no plans to interrogate either David Coleman Headley, an alleged Lashkar operative based in the United States of Pakistani origin, or his associate, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, in connection with 26/11. Speaking exclusively to ANI, M K Narayanan,
said here that the United States "is going to send a high powered team from FBI
with details of the Headley-Rana interrogation." "They have exhaustive information
and President Obama has instructed the FBI to share everything with us (Indian
Government)," Narayanan added. He also revealed that the issue of counter-terrorism
did come up for discussion during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with
President Obama. "Counter-terrorism did come up for discussions between Obama
and the Prime Minister. In particular, about the hubs that are coming up in our
neighbourhood. It also came up in the Headley-Rana case," the National Security
Adviser said. Narayanan said: "The (US) President promptly said `we are seized
of the matter, we are willing to fully cooperate with whatever information is
available. We will send a high-level team with all the data that is available,
and this will be with the Indian authorities in a week's time'". "This sums up
what General James Jones said. Headley-Rana, any interrogation agency would love
to interrogate people, but we can work around it. The Home Minister (P. Chidambaram)
and I will speak to the Director of FBI (Robert S. Mueller III). But, we have
already been able to glean a whole lot of information. Narayanan's comments came
a day after British intelligence agencies said they had tipped off the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) about Headley, days before he was arrested. A UK daily
quoted British agencies as saying that they had collected vital information that
identified Headley. Headley, a US citizen living in Chicago, was arrested in October
in connection with the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Headley was in Pakistan at
the time of the attacks and was reportedly working on another terror plan codenamed
the ‘Mickey Mouse Project’. It must be mentioned that five Pakistani military
officials were arrested earlier this week for their alleged connection with Headley.
Headley’s associate, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, stayed in a guesthouse in Mumbai close
to the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, one of the sites targeted during the
attacks, till November 21, 2008 before returning to Chicago. Headley is also said
to have visited the Osho Ashram in Pune. Apart from his visit to the Taj Mahal
hotel in 2007, he also visited New Delhi twice in 2007 and 2009 and stayed in
a hotel in Paharganj. He has also been accused of plotting an attack on the culture
editor and cartoonist who published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in one of
the leading dailies of Denmark. When asked for his comments on why India and the
United States had not been able to give the final touches to the landmark US-India
Civil Nucklear Cooperation deal, especially on the issue of reprocessing during
Prime Minister Singh's visit to Washington this week, Narayanan told ANI: "It
is likely to conclude in a matter of days. We have agreed to the modalities now
just the language, the legalese needs to b worked out. Thanks to intervention
of President (Obama), we have arrived at the very last stage. There is only one
matter left, its only a matter of legalese." Official sources here said that as
far as reprocessing is concerned, it is connected with arrangements and procedures
of one dedicated facility. They said that the United States understood that it
would be to their advantage to begin with that. "Security arrangements with that
dedicated facility would be exactly how it is with other dedicated facilities
that the US has around the world. We agreed to that," they said. On the issue
of counter-terrorism, they said General James Jones had had discussions with the
Indian team, and added that he had instructions straight from President Obama
to share whatever information Washington has on Headley or Rana. They also said
that all interactions between the Indian and American leaderships were held without
reservations. |
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