Headley withheld details of wives, kin
Pakistani-American LeT terrorist David Headley withheld certain details of his wives and kin living in the US and Pakistan during questioning by Indian investigators. Headley, who had entered into a plea bargain agreement with the US government, categorically asked Indian investigators not to ask questions relating to his immediate family members. Notably, Headley’s wives had informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as early as three years before the 26/11 attack that he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan.
“We had to rely on whatever Headley shared with us. For example, we could not ask him detailed questions about his family and wives,” a government official said. “My request would be not to ask questions relating to my immediate family members,” Headley had told Indian sleuths who visited Chicago in June to question him. Government sources said that Headley was a smart operator since he gave an assurance to Indian interrogators that he would make ‘’relevant mention’’ of his family members during his “questioning for clarifications and understanding of the context of the (26/11) conspiracy.”
But information about Headley’s wives and kin gains significance in the backdrop of his confessions to the Indian investigators. Headley disclosed that the camera he used to click photographs of terror targets both for the 26/11 terror strike and ‘’future targets’’ had been borrowed from his “mother-in-law” in Pakistan. Headley said that he used this camera during seven visits to India between 2006 and 2008. During the seventh visit, Headley did reconnaissance of the landing sites for the attackers in April 2008.
Headley disclosed that he got married to his first wife Shazia Gilani in Pakistan in 1999 and his wife and four children are presently based in Chicago. “Shazia is the daughter of Javed Ahmed. I do not want to discuss the details on my in-laws family as they have nothing to do with my activities,” Headley said in his 106 page confessional statement to the NIA. His second wife, a Moroccan passport holder, had entered India through Wagah border during the period Headley was in India. However, Headley maintained that his family members had nothing to do with his ‘’activities’’. Headley further said that he has two half-brothers — Hamza and Daanyal Gilani — and both of them are officers in the Pakistan government. “Daanyal was also posted as the information officer in the Prime Minister’s office and my father worked in the Pakistan Broadcasting Department. He had gone to the US on deputation to Voice of America,” Headley told Indian slueths.
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