Headley played important role in 26/11 mass murder: US

Washington, Jan 23: Even though Pakistani-American terrorist

played a supportive role in the

, it was unquestionably an essential role contributing to the mass murder, the United States said.

[see: United States rules out extradition for Headley]

In a submission before a Chicago court, the US government said, Headley provided video and intelligence about the locations that later were targeted during the Mumbai terrorist attacks. He also assisted in plotting out a portion of nautical route that the attackers would take and recommended the landing point that they later used to enter Mumbai without being detected, it said.

"Headley played a supporting role to the attacks but an essential one that unquestionably contributed to the mass murder that took place," US government informed the Chicago Court through Attorney Gary S Shapiro. According to Shapiro, from 2002 to 2005, Headley attended five separate Lashkar training camps where he was indoctrinated on the merits of waging jihad and trained in combat skills.

When Lashkar leaders decided that Headley would better serve them by conducting advance surveillance, he changed his name and enlisted the assistance of his friend, Rana, to travel to and stay in Mumbai without detection starting in 2006 and continuing to 2008, Shapiro said. Shapiro told the court that before the Mumbai attacks took place, Headley was instructed by his Lashkar handler to travel to Denmark to perform surveillance for yet another attack.

PTI