views
New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has put a Pakistani diplomat on its ‘wanted list’. Photograph of the diplomat, Amir Zubair Siddiqui, has also been released.
Siddiqui was a visa counsellor in the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo and was put on the list for conspiring to launch attacks on Army and Navy bases in south India and also on the consulates of the US in Chennai and Israel consulate in Bengaluru for their anti-Muslim stance.
Siddiqui had been charge-sheeted in February only and the latest development comes as the agency is set to request Interpol to seek Red Corner Notices (RCNs) against the Pakistani officials.
Two other Pakistani diplomats have been included in the list. One of them goes by his alias ‘Vineeth’ and the other one’s codename has been stated as ‘Boss alias Shah’. The officials, as per the NIA, were said to be serving in Sri Lanka from 2009 to 2016 and planned the attacks with the help of Sri Lankan nationals, identified as Muhammed Sakir Hussain, Arun Selvaraj, Sivabalan and Thameem Ansari. All the men were arrested by the NIA in India.
After recruiting them, the Pakistani officials asked them to befriend several people in various establishments, collect information about defence projects, take pictures of the places, track movements of officials and policemen in the area.
According to the NIA, the former diplomats also asked the men to steal laptops of senior Indian Army officials (and also planned to sell emails for a considerable amount) and also engage in supply of fake Indian currency notes.
The attack on the US Consulate in Chennai was codenamed as ‘Wedding Hall’ and the term ‘cooks’ was used to define the terrorists who were coming to India via Sri Lanka. Bombs were codenamed ‘spices’.
Hussain, after his arrest, had given a detailed description of his meetings with various Pakistani officials based in Sri Lanka as well as two “fidayeen” (suicide attackers) whom he had met in Bangkok.
Comments
0 comment