WASHINGTON: David Headley, a key plotter of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, has claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) persuaded him to change his name to make it easy for him to visit India.

In his memoirs, made available to the makers of an “American Terrorist”, a TV documentary telecast on Tuesday night, Headley also says that he decided to join LeT “full time” following the 9/11 attacks in the US.

Read: David Headley: an enigma

Headley was named Daood Gilani at his birth in the US, born to an American mother and a Pakistani father. But on LeT’s advice he changed it to David Coleman Headley.

Also read: Headley’s two wives spoke to authorities

“He chooses David, which is English for Daood; Coleman, which was his grandfather’s name; and Headley, which was his mother’s maiden name,” the report said.

Headley, who worked as an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, used his US passport to travel to India, scout locations for the plot, film them and even find a landing site for the plot’s attackers, the report claimed.

Also read: David Coleman Headley had ties to Pakistan: FBI

Headley is serving 35 years in a US prison for his role in the Mumbai attack.

In the memoirs he describes how he was “very impressed with their dedication to the cause of the liberation of Kashmir from Indian occupation”.

Headley recalls that during one of his trips to Pakistan, in October 2000, he made his “first contact with LeT, quite by accident. I attended their annual convection in November”.

Also read: `FBI tipped about Headley 3 years before 26/11`

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, he decided to join LeT “full time”, writes Headley. He claims that by 2002 the group asked him to take “the Daura Aamma, the basic military training course offered by LeT”.

The report claimed that Headley was trained in explosives, but perhaps most importantly, Lashkar asked him to change the name given to him at birth by his Pakistani father and American mother - Daood Gilani.

“Finally, in June, my immediate superior, Sajid Mir, instructed me to return to the United States, change my Muslim name to a Christian sounding name and get a new US passport under that name,” he writes.

Also read: Indian govt behind parliament, Mumbai attacks, claims former CBI official

“He now informed me I would be going to India, since I looked nothing like a Pakistani in appearance and spoke fluent Hindi and Urdu it would give me a distinct advantage in India,” Headley claims.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2015

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