David Headley revelations: Pakistan has been exposed, says Rajnath Singh

Following Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley's revelations, Union Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday that Pakistan had been exposed.

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Delhi: Following Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley's revelations about the planning and execution of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Union Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday that Pakistan had been exposed.

"I think Pakistan has been exposed, even then we would like to have a very cordial relationship with them," Singh said.

"You must have heard what David Headley has said in court, that Ishrat Jahan was a suicide bomber," he added while addressing a rally in Kerala, as per ANI.

"Ishrat Jahan regarding whom so many accusations were cast on our leaders. Tell me, will the accusing political parties now apologise to the nation for trying to fool the people?" Singh said.

Headley today told a special court in Mumbai that young college girl Ishrat Jahan - who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat - was an operative of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Testifying via video-link from the US, Headley picked up the name of the 19-year-old Mumbra girl when quizzed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam about a "botched-up operation" mentioned to him (Headley) by LeT commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.

Headley told the court that Lakhvi had mentioned to him about a "botched-up operation" conducted in India by another LeT operative Muzammil Butt where a female member of the terror outfit was killed.

Prodded for details about the operation, Headley said, "There was a female wing in LeT which was headed by one Abu Aiman's mother. Zaki sahab (Zaki-Ur-Rehman) told me about Butt's botched up operation in India. It was some shootout with the police. I don't know which part in India. But there was one female who was killed in the shootout. I think she was an Indian national and not a Pakistani but was a LeT operative," he said.

Four persons - Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Joha - were killed in an encounter with Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The Ahmedabad city crime branch had then claimed that those killed in the encounter were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The CBI, which took over probe from the Gujarat High Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), had filed a charge sheet in August 2013 saying that the encounter was fake and executed in the joint operation by the city crime branch and Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB).

In further disclosures, 55-year-old Headley, who recently turned approver in the 26/11 case, said LeT had planned attacks on the famous Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad to avenge the Babri Masjid demolition and that terror handler Abu Kahfa was in continuous touch with 10 of his members, sent to Mumbai to launch the 26/11 attack, from a control room in Karachi.

Headley also told the court how ISI and LeT majorly funded terror operations in India and financed him from time to time and that Pakistan native Tahawwur Rana visited Mumbai before the terror strikes in November 2008, which left 166 people dead and 309 injured.

(With PTI inputs)