A superseding indictment adds three defendants to charges filed last month against Chicago resident David Coleman Headley for his role in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed approximately 164 people, including six Americans.
The indictment adds charges against Headley associate Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen, Chicago resident and native of Pakistan, alleging his participation in conspiracies involving the Mumbai terror attacks, a plot to attack a Danish newspaper and support for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group. Also charged in the indictment is Illyas Kashmiri, leader of a prominent al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Pakistan, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military.
Complaints were filed against Rana and Abdur Rehman earlier, but the indictment charges Kashmiri for the first time.
According to the indictment, Headley traveled to India five times between September 2006 and July 2008 to scout potential targets for Lashkar. With help from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, Headley opened a First World office in Mumbai as a cover for his reconnaissance activities. The indictment alleges that Rana advised Hedley on how to obtain a visa for travel to India. Headley misrepresented information on his visa application and changed his name from Daood Gilani to present himself as an American. Lashkar members also provided Headley with a global positioning system device to enable him to record locations of possible landing sites and potential targets in Mumbai, the indictment said.
Headley also allegedly conspired with Rana, Kashmiri, Abdur Rehman, and others to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and two of its employees. The newspaper has published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad four years ago that had led to violent protests throughout the Muslim world.
In January 2009, Headley traveled to Denmark to conduct surveillance of Jyllands-Posten offices in Copenhagen and Aarhus and videotape the surrounding areas. With Rana's assistance, Headley identified himself as a First World representative and gained access to the newspaper building by saying he was interested in buying an advertisement in the paper. Later that month, Headley traveled to Pakistan to discuss the planning of the attacks with Abdur Rehman and a Lashkar member. Abdur Rehman allegedly took Headley to meet with Kashmiri in the Waziristan region of Pakistan. Kashmiri suggested using a truck bomb for the operation and promised to provide manpower if needed. The newspaper attack was subsequently put on hold because of heightened vigilance in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.
To read the indictment, click here.