LeT used Gujarat riot video to motivate me against India: Headley

Image: Riot police watch as smoke rises from shops in Ahmedabad during the 2002 riots
Photographs: Reuters

The Lashkar-e-Tayiba used videos of the 2002 Gujarat riots to motivate David Coleman Headley, a co-accused in the 26/11 attacks, to carry out "jihad" against India, indicating how the incident is being used as a major recruiting tool by the banned Pakistani militant group.

Headley, who was trained by LeT in terror operations, besides those from the Inter-Services Intelligence, had told the Chicago court last month that the Gujarat riots was very often the topic of discussion among them.

"Yes", Headley said when the government prosecutor asked him if the Gujarat riot was motivating to him to carry "jihad" against India.

...

'LeT received letters from Muslims in Gujarat asking for help'

Image: Policemen escort one of the prime suspects in the Gujarat riots case to a court in Nadiad in November 2003
Photographs: Reuters

"It was a massacre that had happened, and they showed people running, houses being burnt. And also since that time from 2002 till 2007, the Lashkar office itself had received hundreds of letters from Muslims in Gujarat asking for help," Headley told the court in response to a question from the attorney.

Headley told the court of having shown by the LeT leaders the hidden-camera interview of one Baba Bajrangi, said to be a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, who relocated himself from Mumbai to Gujarat during the riots.

In the video Baba Bajrangi claimed that he had killed a lot of women and burnt houses and stuff. "That's available on YouTube and he showed it to me on disk," Headley said referring to his conversation with LeT leaders in Pakistan.

'Saw Babri Mosque demolition video, discussed hatred against India'

They're videos of the massacres that had taken place in Gujarat a few years earlier and the breaking of the Babri Mosque, other things like that," Headley said when asked about the videos being shown to him by the Lashkar leaders ahead of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

These videos were shown to Headley, when he visited the Muzzaffarabad headquarters if LeT and after the screening of each of these videos they used to discuss hatred against India.

"All of us spent a few weeks there watching videos of different actions that had taken place in India against Muslims," Headley told the court in response to a question.

"We saw a lot of videos of India," Headley said adding that these videos were seen in the company of top LeT leaders and his Pak handlers including Zaki ur- Rehman, Sajid Mir and Muzammill.

More