Headley says he was trained in espionage by ISI

Chicago, May 26: Mumbai attacks co-accused David Coleman Headley has testified that he received espionage training against India from Pakistan''s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

"ISI did provide me (espionage) training," Headley told a Chicago court as he was grilled by the defence attorney Charles D Swift on the third day of the trial of Pakistani-Canadian Tawahhur Rana, another co-accused in the 26/11 attacks, in a Chicago court.

The statements formed part of the testimony of Headley, who has pleaded guilty.

These disclosures, which further cements India''s charges that elements of ISI were involved in the Mumbai attacks, is also corroborated by information given by federal prosecutors in the documents to the court, which were unsealed yesterday.

The ISI training to Headley was provided by Major Iqbal, who was his ISI handler, in a two-storey safe house in Lahore near the airport, the Mumbai terror suspect told judges during the course of questioning by Swift.

Headley told the court that when he met Major Iqbal in 2006, he expressed dissatisfaction at the military and espionage training that he had received from the Lashkar-e-Taiba earlier.

Major Iqbal told him that the training received from LeT was "not very good" and was "very elementary", so he decided to give instructions to him.

Headley told the defence attorney that this training in espionage against India was given to him in Lahore on the streets and a safe house near the airport.

It was a two-storey house in a residential neighbourhood and there was a small compound outside the house, Headley said when pressed by Swift during the closing hours on the third day of the trial.

PTI