US citizen suspected of aiding in terror attack against Mumbai Jewish center

A US citizen of Pakistani origin allegedly posed as a Jew in order to enter the Chabad House in the Indian city of Mumbai in preparation for the 2008 terrorist attack. David Coleman Headley, 49, was arrested on 3 October  in Chicago as he tried fly out to Pakistan. Indian and American authorities have been investigating him, and over the weekend, the Indian Nation Investigating Agency raided several places in Mumbai in search of evidence.

Security sources in India believe Headley cased the Chabad center, known as the Nariman House, for the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is believed to be responsible for the attacks. Indian investigators found that Headley visited all ten Mumbai locations that were attacked by the terrorists, the Chinese news agency ‘Xinhua’ reports. Headley reportedly visited the Mumbai Chabad in July 2008. When he was arrested last month in the United States, he had a book in his possession titled "To Pray as a Jew," according to the ‘Calcutta Telegraph’. He is also suspected of involvement in other terrorist attacks.

The director of the Mumbai Chabad center, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife Rivkah were among the six victims killed at Nariman House. A total of 179 people lost their lives in the terror attacks, which lasted for three days.