A day after the US-India spat over David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayeeba (LeT) operative, senior government officials in New Delhi on Thursday once again reiterated that Washington was aware of Headley’s activities and allowed him repeated visits to India, Pakistan and back to US. Indian government officials also claimed that this could not have happened without the US support. However, Union home secretary G.K. Pillai on Thursday maintained that counter-
terrorism cooperation between the two countries was now far more broad-based. He also said that New Delhi was looking for a successful visit of US President Barack Obama beginning November 6.
Mr Pillai had on Wednesday said that the Indian agencies were “disappointed” over not being provided specific information by the US on Headley either pre-26/11 or after 26/11. Else, he could have been nabbed here when he visited in March 2009 — four months after the Mumbai attacks which he allegedly plotted as a Lashkar-e-Tayeeba operative.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Pillai said, “Intelligence sharing has definitely improved in recent months with the signing of counter-terrorism security initiative. The cooperation between India and the US is now far more broad-based”. He also said there was no specific terror threat during the visit of the US President but militants may try to create disturbance during his India tour to get publicity. “India is now having greater cooperation in sharing intelligence with other nations, but giving more stress on strengthening own intelligence gathering mechanism. We had it during the Commonwealth Games in which agencies of various countries were proved to be useful. But our analysis is that the national interests should be served by our intelligence agencies”, said Mr Pillai. Sources in the ministry, however, maintained even on Thursday that Washington was aware of Headley’s activities and allowed him repeated visits to India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, a day after India expressed disappointment for not being provided specific inputs on the Pakistani-American LeT operative, the US on Thursday said that the information it had on Headley was “more general and less specific” before 26/11 attacks.