India Angry Over U.S. Plea Deal With Mumbai Terrorist

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India Angry Over U.S. Plea Deal With Mumbai Terrorist
Officials in India are protesting a U.S. plea bargain agreement barring the extradition of Pakistan-born American David Headley, who admitted helping to plan the 2008 terror assault in Mumbai.

On March 18, Headley pleaded guilty in a Chicago federal court to 12 charges — nine of them relating to the attacks that killed 166 people — after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or allow extradition.
In November 2008, 10 Pakistani gunmen attacked luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in the Indian city. Nine were killed and one was captured.

Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani to facilitate his terrorist efforts, admitted that he made five trips to Mumbai to scout targets and met with co-conspirators in Pakistan.

A top legal official in India advised his government that the plea bargain conflicts with extradition treaties between the U.S. and India, according to CNSNews.

P. Chidambaram, India’s union minister of home affairs, said India would continue to press for Headley’s extradition. “There are many more questions that we want to ask,” he said in remarks reported by the Times in Britain.

“I will continue to press for access to Headley in the sense that he will testify in a proceeding or subject himself to interrogations. We have not given up our plea for extradition.”

G.K. Pillai, the home secretary, said India would lodge a “very strong protest” if Headley receives a light sentence as a result of his plea bargain.

India had hoped that Headley’s arrest in Chicago last October would expose Pakistani links to the Mumbai attacks.

That has led to speculation that the U.S. cut a deal with Headley because the disclosure of evidence showing that Pakistani officials helped plan the attacks might sour American relations with Pakistan, at a time when the U.S. needs Pakistan’s help in containing the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan.