Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 31, 2002
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=14288
Delhi police have unearthed a terrorist
plan to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, VHP general secretary
Praveen Bhai Togadia and other prominent leaders of the Sangh Parivar by
arresting three activists of Pakistan-based Lashker- e-Toiba (LeT) group
and recovering a large quantity of arms and ammunition from them.
The terrorists, with links in a
Gulf country, were planning to set up a base in Gujarat and were trying
to lure Gujarat communal riot-hit people to the "so-called jehadi activities,"
Delhi Police special commissioner (intelligence) K K Paul told a press
conference on Friday.
While Shahid Ahmed Bakshi, a resident
of Ahmedabad, and Farhan Ahmed Ali of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, were
arrested in Nizamuddin area of South Delhi on Wednesday night, Hafiz Mohd
Tahir was taken into custody in Moradabad on Friday, Paul said.
Four kg of RDX, two detonators,
a Chinese-make pistol along with a magazine and 15 live rounds were recovered
from Bakshi and Ali, he said.
The terrorists had been assigned
the task of carrying out terrorist attacks in India as part of plans hatched
by LeT operatives in meetings in a Middle East country, he said. He did
not identify the country.
Their interrogation has led to unravelling
of an international conspiracy of to target important leaders of BJP, RSS,
VHP and Bajrang Dal, blaming them for the "injustices caused to Muslims
in Gujarat," Paul said, adding they specifically planned to target Modi
and Togadia.
