David Coleman Headley told a Mumbai court today that the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had targeted Shiv Sena patriarch late Bal Thackeray on two occasions.
According to Headley, the police had apprehended a person from LeT who was to carry out the assassination, but he later managed to escape.
David Headley is being cross-examined on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks via video conferencing.
“From what I recall the accused was held by the police but he later escaped,” Headley, the 26/11 accused turned approver, told the court according to NDTV, and also added that his Lashkar handler Sajid Mir had instructed him to target the Shiv Sena chief.
Earlier during his testimony, Headley had confessed that the Shiv Sena chief was a target when the public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam questioned him. He, however, wasn’t questioned further in this regard.
Headley, a US national, is presently serving a 35-year jail sentence in the US for his role in plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attack in 2008 which claimed the lives of 166 people.
Headley is now being questioned by Abu Jundal’s lawyer. Abu Jundal, a key 26/11 plotter, is in jail in India. Headley had testified against him last month. The week-long cross-examination will end on Saturday.
