David Headley linked to Pakistan's officials, reaffirms NSA

There are clear links between Pakistan's official establishment and Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley, who acted as advance scout for the 26/11 attackers, said National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday. HT reports.

There are clear links between Pakistan's official establishment and Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley, who acted as advance scout for the 26/11 attackers, said National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday.

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"It's been brought home recently by what we learnt from Headley, which confirms many of the things that we knew before. And it's really the links between the official establishment and with existing intelligence agencies," said Menon, addressing an international conference on terrorism in the Capital.

His comments come soon after remarks by Home Secretary G K Pillai maintaining that Headley's interrogation had made it clear both Pakistan's ISI and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba founder Hafiz Saeed were involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Menon, however, did not name Pakistan.

His comments though drew a prompt denial from Pakistan, which termed them part of the Indian establishment's "propagandist stance".

Similarly, addressing a vital international gathering in Kabul to discuss the future of Afghanistan, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna stressed that terrorism of all kinds had to be fought, including that which is state sponsored.

"Terrorism cannot be compartmentalised," he said.

"It's that nexus which makes it (terrorism) a much harder phenomenon for us to deal with," Menon added.