Pakistan must take Headley’s disclosures seriously, Obama told

TORONTO - Raising the terror issue with US President Barack Obama, India Sunday said Pakistan must rein in terror groups and act on disclosures made by David Coleman Headley on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The issue was raised during bilateral talks with the US on the sidelines of the G20 Summit here, during which the Indian side, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said Pakistan must act on reining in terror groups.

The talks between Manmohan Singh and Obama took place two days after India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram took up with his Pakistani counterpart New Delhi’s continuing concerns over terror emanating from the Pakistani territory.

He also discussed the disclosures made by Headley, suggesting the involvement of more people, including Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in the Nov 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks and asked Islamabad to prosecute more people than the seven suspects being tried in Pakistan.

Headley, who changed his given name of Daood Gilani in 2006, is now under the US custody and confessed to his role in inspecting sites for the 26/11 Mumbai during questioning by a four-member team from India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).

He had pleaded guilty March 18 in a Chicago court to 12 federal terror charges, admitting that he participated in planning the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, as well as later planning to attack a Danish newspaper.

According to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, the US side was also told about recent peace initiatives with Pakistan, but said Islamabad must also keep its promise of not allowing its soil to be used for cross-border terrorism.

India, however, did not raise the issue of extraditing Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide Corporation, who was sentenced for criminal neglect in the Dec 2-3, 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and has been living in the US.

Anderson was named a proclaimed offender by a Bhopal court earlier this month and convicted along with seven others for criminal neglect in the 1984 tragedy - the worst industrial disaster that killed thousands and left several thousand others maimed.

With public outrage mounting over the Bhopal gas verdict which was widely seen as inadequate, the Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas tragedy in India recently decided to renew efforts afresh for the extradition of Anderson.

The US had earlier turned down the request for Anderson’s extradition when it was last made in 2008.

The fact that Anderson had visited India soon after the Dec 2-3, 1984 disaster and was given safe passage back home has led to a raging controversy.

(Arvind Padmanabhan can be contacted at arvind.p@ians.in)