Washington, Nov 03: Osama bin Laden closely followed developments in Kashmir and the trial of Pakistani-American militant David Coleman Headley in the 2008 Mumbai attack case, according to documents seized from a Pakistani compound where the al-Qaeda founder was killed in a US raid in 2011.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) yesterday released 470,000 additional files seized in May 2011 when US Navy SEALs burst into the Abbottabad compound and shot dead Laden.
The files include Laden’s son’s wedding video and diaries left by the Saudi-born militant.
The documents revealed that Laden closely followed news related to the arrest of Headley and was a regular reader of some of the top Indian publications.
An Indian Express article titled ‘Omar Sheikh’s Pak handler Ilyas Kashmiri also handled Headley’ was found from the computer of Laden in Abbottabad. The article was dated November 16, 2009.
An article ‘Fears of air-borne terrorists strikes in India, UK’ published in Sri Lanka Guardian was also found in a separate file on Laden’s computer.
A Press Trust of India story headlined ‘Al-Qaeda helping Taliban to destabilise Pakistan Government: Gates’, dated February 9, 2010, was also found on Laden’s computer.
Another article found on his computer was about the coded communications between Headley and his Harkat-ul-Jihad- al-Islami (HuJI) links. The news was published by The Time of India on November 15, 2009.
Laden also saved on his computer another PTI article, titled: ‘India to send magistrate to US to record Headley’s statement’.
Laden highlighted in yellow some portion of the article titled ‘Pak Major handled Headley’s India recce’, published on March 16, 2010.
The highlighted portion reads, “The dossiers also sought the custody of Pakistani terrorist, Ilyas Kashmiri.”
The documents also revealed that Laden was interested in news related to Kashmir and several militants.
An Economic Times story ‘US asks Pakistan to find Iyas Kashmiri’ dated January 7, 2010 was among the saved documents on Laden’s computer.
A February 2009 article about ‘Pakistani Kashmiri militants now fighting NATO forces’ was also found.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo said the release of recovered al-Qaeda letters, videos, audio files and other materials provides the opportunity for the American people to gain further insights into the plans and workings of the terrorist organisation.
At the direction of President Donald Trump, the CIA put online 470,000 additional files.
‘Osama followed developments in Kashmir, Headley trial’
