US hedges on access to Headley, BJP decries ‘flip-flop’ (Second Lead)

NEW DELHI - Amid reports of India sending a team of investigators to quiz David Coleman Headley, the US Tuesday appeared to signal a change in stance over giving New Delhi direct access to the Pakistani-American terror suspect, saying no decision has been taken on the issue.

While the government did not react officially, sources said they were still hopeful that the US would not deny direct access to a man who was a key plotter in the most horrendous terror attack in India that left 166 people killed, including six Americans.

“If they deny us direct access, it will affect ties, but we are hopeful of getting access,” said a source.

Four days after US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake said here that Indian investigators will have access to Headley, US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer said that “no decision on direct access for India to David Headley has been made”.

The envoy stressed that the US was committed to full information sharing with India, but made it clear that the two sides are still working on the modalities of such cooperation.

The envoy’s remarks did not play out well in India.

The chief opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decried the envoy’s remarks as a sign of “flip-flop”.

“As the assistant secretary indicated, the US is committed to full information sharing in our counter terror partnership,” the US envoy said in a statement.

“In fact, in this case we have provided substantial information to the government of India and we will continue to do so. However, no decision on direct access for India to David Headley has been made,” Roemer said.

The US envoy added that the US department of justice will work with the Indian government “regarding the modalities of such cooperation”.

After Blake’s remarks and a telephonic discussion with US Attorney General Eric Holder, also head of the justice department, Home Minister P. Chidambaram had asked the National Investigation Authority and other agencies to prepare documents necessary for questioning Headley.

Sources in the home ministry said India is likely to send a team of investigators early April to question the 49-year-old Headley who confessed to his role in plotting the Mumbai attacks in a Chicago court last week, earning the court’s promise of sparing him the death sentence in a bargain plea.

“It is my understanding,” Chidambaram had said, “that India would be able to obtain access to Headley to question him in a properly constituted judicial proceeding. Such a judicial proceeding could be either pre-trial or during an inquiry or trial.”

Chidambaram, who returns from Britain Wednesday, is expected to discuss with experts this week to finalise the composition of the team, the sources said. The interrogation of Headley, the sources said, could give India vital clues to the Laskhar-e-Taiba’s terror plans in India.

Last week, Headley pleaded guilty in a Chicago court to all 12 counts brought against him and accepted that he had attended training camps in Pakistan run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which masterminded the Mumbai carnage, on five occasions in 2002-05. He admitted visiting India to map the terror targets.

Reacting sharply to the US envoy’s remarks, the BJP said it amounted to a “flip-flop.”

“It’s a flip-flop on part of the US and also of the UPA’s foreign policy. The US ambassador is now saying they have not decided on the issue even as Home Minister P. Chidambaram is planning to send a team to the US,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told IANS.

“There is a problem of comprehension or communication here. It shows India is unable to build the pressure on the US,” Javadekar alleged.

“The US should extradite him to India. Headley has, after all, committed a crime in India,” the BJP leader said, adding his party will raise the issue in parliament when it convenes after a recess April 15.