<p>At the age of 16, Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, was taken out of Pakistan, where he attended a military school, and brought to Philadelphia by his mother who had split with her husband by then and opened a popular pub-cum-nightspot.<br /><br />A report in the ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ on Thursday has brought out unknown facets of the life of the 49-year-old, who along with Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, allegedly planned attacks in India and Denmark at the behest of Lashker-e-Toiba.<br /><br />They are also suspected to have carried out recce of the deadly 26/11 attack sites in Mumbai.<br /><br />According to the paper, Headley’s mother Serrill Headley was founder of the Khyber Pass pub-restaurant in Philadelphia. After splitting with her husband, a “prominent Pakistani diplomat”, she lost child custody in Pakistani courts. After two attempts to get her son out of Pakistan failed, she finally succeeded in 1977.<br /><br />In Philadelphia, however, Headley suffered from “culture shock”. Raised as a Muslim, he was having trouble adjusting to the idea that his mother ran a bar, the report said. “He has never been alone with, much less had a date with, a girl, except the servant girls of his household,” it said.<br /><br />He changed his name to Headley in 2006 “to raise less suspicion when he travelled”.<br />The report said the Khyber was a slice of exotica on the Philadelphia bar scene, with Pakistani wedding tents and 180 brands of beer. Eventually, Serrill turned it over to her son.<br /><br />“His mother owned it and gave it to him around 1985,” said Stephen Simons, current owner of the bar, now called the Khyber. “He ran it for about a year and ran it into the ground,” Simons said. Simons’ brother bought the bar in 1988. Headley studied accounting, possibly at a community college in the Philadelphia region. With his mother, he operated a video store, FliksVideo, in Center City. Serrill Headley died in 2008. Her second husband, Dick Pothier, was an ‘Inquirer’ reporter. He also died in 1995.<br /><br />In 1997, Headley, under his birth name Gilani, was convicted on federal charges in Brooklyn of smuggling heroin into the country. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, the report said.<br /><br />Headley had been living in the north side of Chicago, authorities said, in an apartment under the name of a dead man. Although he has claimed to be a consultant in an immigrations business, federal agents who have had him under surveillance found no evidence that was true.<br /></p>
<p>At the age of 16, Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, was taken out of Pakistan, where he attended a military school, and brought to Philadelphia by his mother who had split with her husband by then and opened a popular pub-cum-nightspot.<br /><br />A report in the ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ on Thursday has brought out unknown facets of the life of the 49-year-old, who along with Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, allegedly planned attacks in India and Denmark at the behest of Lashker-e-Toiba.<br /><br />They are also suspected to have carried out recce of the deadly 26/11 attack sites in Mumbai.<br /><br />According to the paper, Headley’s mother Serrill Headley was founder of the Khyber Pass pub-restaurant in Philadelphia. After splitting with her husband, a “prominent Pakistani diplomat”, she lost child custody in Pakistani courts. After two attempts to get her son out of Pakistan failed, she finally succeeded in 1977.<br /><br />In Philadelphia, however, Headley suffered from “culture shock”. Raised as a Muslim, he was having trouble adjusting to the idea that his mother ran a bar, the report said. “He has never been alone with, much less had a date with, a girl, except the servant girls of his household,” it said.<br /><br />He changed his name to Headley in 2006 “to raise less suspicion when he travelled”.<br />The report said the Khyber was a slice of exotica on the Philadelphia bar scene, with Pakistani wedding tents and 180 brands of beer. Eventually, Serrill turned it over to her son.<br /><br />“His mother owned it and gave it to him around 1985,” said Stephen Simons, current owner of the bar, now called the Khyber. “He ran it for about a year and ran it into the ground,” Simons said. Simons’ brother bought the bar in 1988. Headley studied accounting, possibly at a community college in the Philadelphia region. With his mother, he operated a video store, FliksVideo, in Center City. Serrill Headley died in 2008. Her second husband, Dick Pothier, was an ‘Inquirer’ reporter. He also died in 1995.<br /><br />In 1997, Headley, under his birth name Gilani, was convicted on federal charges in Brooklyn of smuggling heroin into the country. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, the report said.<br /><br />Headley had been living in the north side of Chicago, authorities said, in an apartment under the name of a dead man. Although he has claimed to be a consultant in an immigrations business, federal agents who have had him under surveillance found no evidence that was true.<br /></p>
