Headley’s half brother at Vajpayee funeral: India finds Pak’s choice surprising

New Delhi, Aug 20: For the last rites of former prime minister, Bharat Ratna, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a host of foreign dignitaries including some from Pakistan had come down. Among the five delegates from Pakistan was one, Danyal Gilani, who is the half brother of David Headley, the Pakistan American terrorist, jailed for his role in the Mumbai 26/11 attack.

On arrival, Gilani had tweeted, "Pakistan's Federal Minister for Law and Information Syed Ali Zafar meets India's Minister for External Affairs @SushmaSwaraj in New Delhi extending condolences on the demise of former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

When an official in Delhi was asked by OneIndia about this incident, he said that there has been no slip up in security. First and foremost, he has disassociated himself with Headley publicly. Moreover he does not have any terror links and neither is he on the backlist. The visa was cleared after after thorough checking and it was learnt that he was not only any blacklist, the official also said.

While Danyal did attend the last rites, he however did not go for the meeting with Sushma Swaraj, officials also pointed out. While officials say that there was no ground to bar him from coming to India, they are however surprised over the choice of people in the delegation. Danyal is posted as a Chairman of the Film Censor Board in Pakistan and it is hard to understand what he was doing part of the delegation, officials also said. However in the event of India not declaring him persona non grata, he could not have been denied an entry into India, the officer also pointed out.