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New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) may have removed crucial references of Ishrat Jahan's terror links from the testimony of David Coleman Headley, the 26/11 mastermind arrested by America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), NDTV has learnt. The question that now arises is - who instructed the NIA to remove these references from the interrogation report?
David Coleman Headley was interrogated by the NIA team between June 3-9, 2010 for about 34 hours. The NIA generated a 119-page interrogation report.
A version of the interrogation report that the NIA shared with some of the security agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB), says that David Coleman Headley had said "in late 2005 Zaki-ur Rehman Lakvi (one of the key Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists) introduced Muzzammil to me. Having introduced Muzzammil , Zaki talked about the accomplishments of Muzzammil as a Lashker Commander. Zaki also sarcastically mentioned that Muzzammil was top commander whose every big project had ended in a failure. Zaki added that Ishrat Jahan module was also one of Muzzammil's botched up operations."
Mr Headley also told the NIA that apart from this, he had no knowledge about Ishrat Jahan.
The 119-page interrogation report is also is in the public domain and was written about extensively. However, these two paragraphs do not figure in the report available. The NIA has not officially explained why the two paragraphs were missing.
Sources told NDTV that paragraphs were removed because an assessment of David Coleman Headley's interrogation led a section in the Government to conclude that the reference to Ishrat and her associates were based on hearsay rather than first-hand information.
NDTV also accessed a letter written by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to CBI in February 2013. The IB in its letter says that David Coleman Headley had told the FBI that Ishrat Jehan was "female suicide bomber".
The IB also told the CBI that "Shahid Mehamood Basra, a Pakistani National and Let terrorist, arrested by the J&K Police, has made extensive disclosures about one Babar Abdul Adnan, a Pak fiyadeen of LeT having a shoulder injury who had been tasked by Muzzammil for terrorist action targeting a VIP . Barsa was asked by Muzzamil to provide logistic support to Babar. Basra also disclosed that Babar was one of the 4 persons shown in TV having been killed in Ahmedabad Gujarat on June 15, 2004."
Ishrat Jahan and her three other associates, which include two Pakistani nationals, were also killed near Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
NDTV is also in possession inputs the FBI shared with the IB on March 25, 2010. The FBI told the IB that according to its own investigations and questioning of David Coleman Headley, Ishrat Jahan and her associates were planning to target "Akshar Dham Temple, Somnath and Siddhi Temple".
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Joe Shearer and his ilks may be interested in this article.