26/11 U.S. hearings begin today

The Chicago hearings in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case will begin on Monday as suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana will go on trial after being indicted two weeks ago to face his alleged accomplice and now the prosecution?s star witness David Headley.

The trial could expose links of the Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with the Mumbai attacks, putting further pressure on the country to expedite its actions against the 26/11 accused currently running free in the south Asian nation.

A 12-member jury, with six alternatives, were selected throughout last week and sworn in at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, from over 100 potential jurors short-listed after answering extensive questionnaires.

According to reports, Rana is likely to state that he and co-accused David Headley were recruited on behalf of Pakistani spy services, even though his lawyers last month rubbished the reports and denied any ?knowing involvement? in the 26/11.

A report in The Globe and Mail newspaper had first claimed that both Rana and his friend Headley will say that they believed themselves to be working for both the Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist group, and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan?s spy agency.

The US government on May 9 filed a second chargesheet in a Chicago court in the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai naming five people as accused in the case of “conspiracy to maim, murder and bomb places of public use in India”.

The chargesheet filed in the US court named the five accused as: Sajid Majeed, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal, Major Iqbal and a Lashkar-e-Toiba member known as D.

The accused were named in the Tahawwur Rana case. Rana is a Pakistani Canadian and like Pakistani American David Coleman Headley is involved in the Mumbai attack who was indicted along with several other suspects.

All accused were charged in the district court in Chicago two weeks ago, though none of them is in custody of the US government.

US paper Chicago Tribune said Tahawwur Hussain Rana is alleged to have provided a cover for the scout (Headley) “who checked out locations for the deadly rampage and acted as a messenger for the Pakistani terrorist group allegedly behind the 2008 attack.”

In the worst terrorist attacks in India, Pakistani-trained gunmen laid siege on Mumbai since November 26, 2008, killing over 160 people, including six Americans, in attacks on a railway station, luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, among other targets.

Rana, who was arrested along with Headley by the US? Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Illinois, is accused of providing terrorists with the false credentials they used to pick targets in Mumbai.

LeT is blamed for the attack, though Pakistani government?s hand is also suspected ? a charge refuted by the country where 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was found in a garrison town, just 60 km north of capital Islamabad.