ISI wanted to infiltrate Pune army command, hire officers: David Headley

Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley told Special TADA Court Judge G A Sanap that post-26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, he had surveyed sensitive military establishments in Pune, here on Saturday.

When asked by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam what military establishments he referred to, Headley readily said it was the (Indian Army's) Southern Command Headquarters.

"The intentions here were similar to the nuclear establishments (BARC). The ISI wanted to recruit military officers and get 'classified information' from them," Headley told during his deposition on the sixth day.

He surveyed and videographed the Southern Command HQ Building between March 16-17, 2009, preceded by recce of Chabad Houses in Goa on March 15 and earlier Pushkar between March 11-13 that year - nearly four months after the terror attacks were executed in Mumbai on November 26-28, 2008.

The Pune assignment was carried out at the behest of Major Iqbal of the ISI, to whom the videos were later handed over.

Headley has been giving his deposition from a jail in the US at an undisclosed location via video-conferencing continuously since last Monday, barring February 10 when it was adjourned owing to certain technical uplinking issues on the US side.