Ilyas Kashmiri wanted to kill Lockheed Martin Chief: Headley

Chicago, Jun 1: David Headley, is acting as an encyclopaedia for the US officials to have a look in to the nefarious designs of Pakistan's murky world of terrorist activities. In yet another startling revelation, Headley has testified during the Chicago trial of his childhood friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana that Ilyas Kashmiri was hatching a plot to kill the head of US defense group Lockheed Martin.

Ilyas Kashmiri is the head of a Pakistani branch of the al-Qaeda and wanted to kill the defence group in retaliation over the drones made by the company.

Headley, who has confessed to having done a recce for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, has testified that he secretly used Rana's office computer for research on the plot to assassinate the Lockheed Martin executive but then dismissed it as insignificant.

During a cross-examination by Rana's defence attorney, he said, "My research is more in-depth than Googling someone a couple of times."

He also informed that he was working on the plan to kill Robert Stevens, the Lockheed Martin head with lyas Kashmiri, the commander of the Pakistani-based terrorist organization Harakat ul Jihad al Islami (HUJI), and a senior member of al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for lockheed Martin has declined to comment on if the company had received any information about the plot and whether they have taken any extra measure to ensure the safety of Stevens.

She has been quoted by the AFP as saying, "Our number one concern is the safety and security of every Lockheed Martin employee. We base decisions about employee and facility security measures on our ongoing assessment of the security environment but as a matter of policy, we do not discuss specific threats against our company or our employees."

With more skeletons tumbling out of the Headley trials, the US must be getting an insight into what India has been holding for long that Pakistan is indeed a safe haven for terrorists and terror outfits.

OneIndia News