NIA officials told PTI that the paperwork for the issuance of the Red Corner notice against Siddiqui was being completed and would be sent soon to the Interpol headquarters based in Lyon in France soon.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reportedly initiated the process for securing an Interpol Red Corner notice against Pakistani diplomat in a 2014 terror case. The decision was taken after Amir Zubair Siddiqui was chargesheeted last week for allegedly conspiring to launch terror strikes on the US and Israeli consulates in southern India, news agency PTI reported.
NIA officials told PTI that the paperwork for the issuance of the Red Corner notice against Siddiqui was being completed and would be sent soon to the Interpol headquarters based in Lyon in France soon.
During his stint as a visa counsellor at the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo, Siddiqui had allegedly conspired to carry out terror strikes in India. He had to be repatriated to Islamabad after India mounted pressure on Sri Lanka about his alleged activities targeting the country.
The conspiracy, said to be hatched by Pakistan’s ISI, to carry out terror strikes in south India was exposed after Sri Lankan resident Sakir Hussain’s arrest in April 2014, when he was in the process of scouting the two consulates. Before pleading guilty to the terror charges levelled against him by the NIA, Hussain had named Siddiqui in the case. Hussain is currently serving a prison sentence and his jail term will end next year.
Hussain had carried out reconnaissance of the US consulate in Chennai and the Israeli consulate in Bangalore to facilitate a terror strike similar to 26/11. For this, two terrorists were to be flown in from the Maldives. He was arrested after the NIA was handed over evidence by the US authorities. The documents handed over by the US to India established communication between Hussain and ‘Shahjee’, a Pakistani national introduced to the accused allegedly by a Pakistani diplomat working with its mission in Sri Lanka.
Hussain 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. Hussain was told by a Pakistani official, who was of a higher rank than Siddiqui, that the project to carry out the attack at the US consulate in Chennai would be code-named as “wedding hall” and “cooks” was the code for the two terrorists who would have executed the plan. “Spice” was the code name for the bomb devices which were to be planted at the consulate, they said.
(With PTI inputs)
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