'LeT had planned for 26/11 attack in 2005'

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jan 15 (PTI) Lashkar-e-Taiba had started
planning for the Mumbai terrorist attacks at least three years
before its strikes in November 2008.

According to the charges filed by American federal
prosecutors before a Chicago court, an unnamed Lashkar member
A, who served as a "handler" for terror suspect David Coleman
Headley and another person associated with LeT, advised him in
late 2005 that he would be travelling to India to perform
surveillance of potential targets for Lashkar.
Arrested by the FBI in October last year, Headley, a
Pakistani-American, has been charged with planning terrorist
attack in India and being involved in the Mumbai terrorist
attack.
His school-time friend Tahawwur Hussein Rana has also
been arrested and indicted on similar charges.
In an indictment filed before the Chicago court today,
federal prosecutors said, as per direction given by his LeT
handlers Headley changed his given name of Daood Gilani on
February 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, enabling him to present
himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor
Pakistani.
In the spring of 2006, Lashkar Member A and a Lashkar
associate discussed with Headley the idea that he could open
an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his
surveillance activities. MORE PTI LKJ
AHM


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