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Pak official in Lanka key to ISI's terror plan for south India

July 28, 2014 12:52 IST

An official at the Pakistan high commission in Colombo allegedly planned strikes on American and Israeli consulates in south India, reports Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com

Zaheed Hussain -- a resident of Kandy, Sri Lanka, who was arrested a week before the twin explosions aboard a train at Chennai's Central railway station on May 1 -- has made startling revelations about Pakistani plans to direct terror in south India.

Hussain's confession reveals that Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence assigned an official at its high commission in Colombo to plan terror attacks in south India.

A National Investigation Agency officer told Rediff.com that Hussain revealed that an official at the Pakistan high commission in Colombo recruited him to carry out surveillance on American and Israeli consulates in south India and thereafter hatch a plan to attack both buildings.

The NIA dossier, based on Hussain's revelations, has been shared with the agency's Sri Lankan counterpart. The Pakistani official has been identified in the NIA dossier as Amir Zubair Siddiqui.

"Hussain told us that Siddiqui asked him to recruit people in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and target the US and Israeli consulates," the NIA agent told this correspondent on condition that he would not be identified by name in this report.

"A man in Malaysia, Hussain said, was raising funds for this," the NIA agent added.

Siddiqui, according to the NIA, told Hussain that the ISI was setting up a module in Sri Lanka since it was easier to direct terror operations in south India from the island.

Siddiqui has been posted at the Pakistan high commission in Sri Lanka since 2008.

Image used for representational purposes only.

Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com