New Delhi, June 16
The Delhi police today claimed to have foiled the attempt of international terrorist Osama bin Laden to blow up the US Embassy here, with the arrest of three persons, including a Sudanese national.
Abdul Rauf Hawas, the Sudanese national, was arrested from Nizamuddin. His interrogation led to the arrest of his accomplice, Shamim Sarvar, a resident of Bihar and a postgraduate in Urdu and Persian from Patna University. Three members of the Bin Laden group are still absconding, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Mr Ashok Chand, said.
The third person, Abbas, was arrested from Udaipur during a raid. Raids on different places are on to make further arrests.
The suspects were arrested by a joint team of the special cell, South Delhi police and central intelligence agencies. With these arrests, Bin Laden’s direct involvement in subversive activities in the country has
been confirmed. The security cordon around the US Embassy has been tightened.
Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national, has his network in different countries. He has his base in Afghanistan. He has a very good network in Sudan.
The police seized a pre-fabricated improvised explosive device, capable of causing huge destruction, from the possession of the Sudanese national. Six kg of RDX, a cellphone, a timer device and batteries were seized from Shamim’s possession. The consignment was given to Shamim by a conduit of Osama bin Laden on the Indo-Nepal border near Raxaul in Bihar.
The DCP said Hawas came to India in 1990 on a student visa and became the union leader of Sudanese students in India. He came in contact with Bin Laden’s activists in India after two or three years of his arrival in India. In the beginning, he was
directed to set up a base in Udaipur where he was studying.
Later, he was asked to shift his base from Udaipur to Delhi where he came in contact with a conduit of Bin Laden.
He met Shamim in Delhi in 1998 and motivated him to join the jehad of Bin Laden. Shamim had a number of religious disciples in Delhi and other parts of the country.
The DCP said Hawas and Bin Laden’s conduit called Shamim from Bihar and directed them to execute the orders given by their boss in Afghanistan for which Shamim was paid Rs 50,000.
Hawas is believed to have travelled to Afghanistan where Bin Laden has his headquarters, and Iran.
During interrogation Hawas disclosed that in February, he and the conduit discussed with Shamim the method to spread Bin Laden’s jehad in India. They were then joined by the fourth person, Abdul Rehman Al-Safari, a suspected member of the Bin Laden group who reportedly told them to plan a strike at the US Embassy in New Delhi.
Shamim visited the embassy on the pretext of applying for a visa. During his visits he took detailed note of the security arrangement at the embassy located in Chanakyapuri.
After studying it from different angles, they decided to fit a pre-fabricated improvised explosive device in a car and park it
close to the visa section of the embassy, the most vulnerable point in the high-security building.
Hawas and Shamim were given Rs 5 lakh to arrange two drivers and a car to be used in the operation. They decided that there would be a woman along with the driver and they would come back after parking the car at a suitable point.
The decision to take a woman along the driver was taken to avoid suspicion, the DCP said.
The accused were assured by Bin Laden that after the attack, they would be shifted to some other country, he said.
