Green signal to NIA in filing charges against Headley

The government has given the go ahead to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s premier anti-terror probe body, to file charges in a court against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist David Headley and his Pakistan handlers for their alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.Highly placed sources said on Wednesday that the NIA would soon be filing a chargesheet against nine accused, including Headley and LeT militant Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal, said to be in the Pakistan Army who also allegedly works for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).Headley’s accomplice and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana is also expected to be named in the charge sheet for allegedly plotting the terror attack that left 166 people dead in the three-day carnage in India’s financial hub.“The chargesheet has been finalised. The home ministry has sanctioned to file the charges in an NIA court,” a source privy to the latest development said.Also to be named in the charge sheet are LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and top commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.Lakhvi is already in a Pakistani jail undergoing trial for the terror attack.