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CRIME: TERRORISM
Target America
The discovery of a plot to bomb the US Embassy in
Delhi reveals the very long reach of the world's most wanted man, Osama
bin Laden
By Sayantan Chakravarty
A plot hatched in
the mountains of Afghanistan, elaborately planned in Sudan and Yemen,
and meant to be executed with brutal speed and stealth outside the sprawling
compound of the US Embassy in Delhi. The men behind the mission are, among
others, the world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden and his trusted
lieutenant, a Sudanese student of agricultural economics, a Sufi "cleric"
from Patna and even, it is alleged, a diplomat and senior minister of
the Government of Sudan. Intercepted phone conversations between Arab
terrorists, a tip-off from the FBI, legwork by the Intelligence Bureau
(IB) and the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, lead to the arrest of two
men caught exchanging explosives and detonators in a park. The heinous
international conspiracy to blow up the American Embassy is foiled.
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| FOILED PLANS: Sarwar (top) and Raouf were arrested
in time |
It would have all read like a Fredrick Forsyth
best seller had the Delhi Police not arrested and interrogated the two
suspects, Abdel Raouf Hawash, a 32-year-old Sudanese student who worked
in the Sudanese Embassy as a part-time translator, and Patna-based Sufi
cleric Shamim Sarwar last week. Raouf and Sarwar were arrested exchanging
6 kg of rdx, pencil timers and detonators in a West Nizamuddin park. A
third man, Sheikh Abbas Hussain, a 45-year-old car mechanic, was later
arrested in Udaipur. His role in the plot was to provide the cars to be
used in the bombings and equip them with fake licence plates and engine
numbers.
The three arrests and subsequent interrogations,
reports of which were made available to India Today, have uncovered the
plan to hit the busiest and most crowded part of the US Embassy in Delhi,
its visa section. The reason bin Laden is believed to have masterminded
the plot comes not just in the flowery address to the Saudi terrorist
in a letter from Sarwar, calling him the "saviour of all Muslims".
The letter talks of jihad and even suggests a time for the US Embassy
bombing. "I bow to Laden, to Afghans, to mujahideens. When Muslims
are being tortured, every Muslim should fight Jihad. In Delhi, they are
vigilant around August 15, after that..."
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| THE INSPIRATION: Osama bin Laden |
The choice of the target itself-a US embassy-is
widely accepted as the bin Laden signature.The Americans allege the elusive
6'5"-tall, battle-scarred Saudi millionaire has had a hand in bombing
US missions in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam (see box) on August 7, 1998 which
killed 260 people. Raouf's interrogation further confirmed the presence
of a bin Laden henchman as the driving force behind the plot. More damningly,
Raouf revealed in custody that he was assisted by responsible officials
of the Sudanese Embassy. The Delhi Police are learnt to have moved a request
to the Home Ministry and the mea to question one of them.
Sudan's animosity for the US stems from the
1998 Tomahawk missile bombing of the Al Shifa chemical plant in the Sudanese
capital Khartoum, the city where bin Laden began his Al Qaeda rebel group
in 1991. Sudan is on the US State Department's list of nations sponsoring
terrorism and bin Laden tops the FBI's most wanted list with a $5-million
price on his head ever since the Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam bombings. The
Tomahawk attack was seen as a reply to the embassy bombings and neither
side has rested easy since. The plot to bomb the Chanakyapuri mission
is suspected to be the continuation of a joint campaign of retribution.
The plan for Delhi was fairly straightforward:
a small car laden with explosives, packed in plastic into containers the
size of dinner plates, would be driven towards the us Embassy visa section.
A woman (the assumption being that women raise less suspicion), feigning
engine trouble, would step out of the car. A second female accomplice
would drive in another vehicle and the two would talk. They would then
cruise away from the stalled car with the explosives. Within minutes the
car bomb would be triggered from a parking lot across the street. The
subsequent damage was expected to be enormous because of the serpentine
queues of several hundred people who line up outside the visa section
every day.
The first steps to uncovering this plot were
taken when the FBI intercepted telephone conversations between Arab terrorists
in third countries and suspected a sudden attack on their mission. The
timing of the attack was not quite clear; FBI agents believed it would
be towards the end of June. Sarwar's letter to bin Laden suggests a date
after August 15. The Americans approached the Ministry of External Affairs
(mea) in the first week of May with a diplomatic missive, providing information
about the proposed attack and seeking support from the Indians. The note
said the plot "poses a serious threat to the lives of Americans and
Indians who frequent our embassy, and can cause serious damage".
The mea then passed on the information to the
IB and the Research and Analysis Wing in mid-May. Ajai Singh, joint secretary,
mea, says, "Yes, the Americans did send us a note on a threat perception
they had about an attack. I forwarded it to the intelligence agencies
and the Delhi Police."
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