Pakistan: Ilyas Kashmiri's connections

Evidence of Kashmiri's connections among the Pakistani diaspora in the U.S. and Europe emerged during investigations into Headley's plans to attack the Jyllands Posten, a Danish newspaper that incensed many Muslims by publishing cartoons they saw as blasphemous.

In August 2009, Headley flew to the United Kingdom to meet two contacts Kashmiri had told him might be able to help plan the attack in Denmark. The men, Headley told India's National Investigation Agency, were from Kashmiri's home town, Kotli.

Known to Headley as “Basharat” and “Sufiyan,” neither Derby jihadist was ever arrested — raising the prospect that one or both might have been informants for the United Kingdom's domestic intelligence service, MI5. MI5 was later to pass on information on Headley's meeting with the men to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, leading to the Pakistani-American jihadist's arrest.

From London, Headley flew on to Stockholm, to meet another contact introduced to him by Major Hashim. “Farid,” as the contact was known, was an immigrant from Morocco — the home of Headley's third wife, Faiza Outhalla.

‘Farid', however, refused help, saying he was under constant police surveillance, forcing Headley to conduct surveillance on the Jyllands Posten office in Copenhagen alone.

Further evidence of Kashmiri's extensive networks among Pakistani diaspora has surfaced with some regularity since Headley's arrest.

Last spring, investigators arrested Raja Lahrasib Khan, a Chicago taxi driver, on charges of funnelling funds to Kashmiri to purchase weapons. He also discussed plans for setting off improved explosive devices in a local stadium with an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation officer.

India has also been targeted by the network. In a posthumous, 26-minute audiotape released by the al-Qaeda after the killing of its ranking commander Said al-Masri in 2008, the organisation said Kashmiri had helped carry out a bombing in Pune.

Even though al-Masri's account of the bombing was exaggerated and inaccurate — he evidently believed Pune was India's capital, and that 20 Jews were killed in the attack — Indian investigators say Kashmiri may well have helped the networks that carried out the strike.