Central agencies have claimed that Pakistan’s spy agency ISI had plans to carry out terror attacks on two foreign consulates in India with evidence for this reportedly given by a Sri Lankan national, arrested from Chennai, during his interrogation.
Officials claimed on Sunday that Zakir Hussain, a Sri Lankan national, told his interrogators that he had been hired allegedly by an official in Pakistani High Commission in Colombo to conduct reconnaissance of US Consulate in Chennai and Israeli Consulate in Bangalore. Hussain was arrested on April 29 in a coordinated operation involving various countries. He is reported to have told the interrogators that ISI was planning to send two men from Maldives to Chennai and that he had to arrange for their travel documents and hideouts.
Hussain’s name cropped up during a probe in a South East Asian country, which tipped a central security agency in India about possible attack on US and Israeli consulates, sources said. An immediate surveillance led the investigators to Hussain, who had been constantly shifting his base in Sri Lanka prompting the sleuths to seek cooperation of the island nation, sources said.
In Chennai, Hussain reportedly took the name of Amir Zubair Siddiq, who is Counsellor (Visa) at Pakistan High Commission in Colombo.
The sleuths recovered pictures of US and Israeli consulates showing various gates and roads leading to the two premises, the sources said, and claimed that these pictures had been mailed to his alleged handlers in Pakistan and its High Commission in Colombo.
Cyber signatures showed that the pictures were downloaded at a computer within the premises of Pakistan High Commission at Colombo and the same had been shared with Lankan authorities, the sources claimed.
Muhammad Daud Ehtisham, Press Attache, High Commission of Pakistan in Sri Lanka, has dismissed as speculative in nature the charge of ISI’s alleged involvement in any attack plans.
Sri Lankan authorities were carrying out a probe at its end to fill in the gaps in the investigations being carried out by India besides corroborating the version of Hussain. Siddiq is not a new name for intelligence agencies as he figured earlier as well in 2012-13 when central security agencies picked up one Tameem Ansari, a frequent flier from Tiruchy to Colombo. Ansari was arrested after six months of surveillance in 2012. Ansari, a small trader was in touch with Haji, a Tamil-speaking Muslim from Colombo. Since Ansari’s business was not doing well, Haji introduced him to Siddiq in the Pakistan mission in Colombo, and his second in command, Shaji.
After brainwashing him, Siddiq roped him to take videos of the Nagapattinam port, the ships that berthed there, the topography and other dimensions as well as Mallipattinam. The sources said the strategy being followed by ISI was to rope in Muslims from Sri Lanka for executing their plans to give credibility to the deniability factor that it was not involved. While Indian and Sri Lankan intelligence authorities continue to be stay in touch with each other, diplomatic sources indicated Sri Lanka high commission had not yet asked for entitled consular access to the arrest Sri Lankan national who reportedly was part of plan to target foreign missions in South India. Though Indian police have described Zakir Hussain as a Sri Lankan national, diplomatic sources said that Sri Lanka had not asked for consular access. Only after the information was officially shared by Indi could Sri Lanka think about asking for access to the arrested foreigner. The Sri Lankan government rejected claims that the island was being used as training ground for terrorists.