An Indian crime boss accused of masterminding an attack on a US cultural centre planned a wave of terror strikes, among them the killing of the country's top missile scientist, a newspaper reported today.
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Indian policemen escort Jamil Ud-din Nasir into a criminal court in Calcutta. Police arrested him, saying he helped the killers who attacked the U.S. Information Service last week.
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Citing a secret police document, the
Hindustan Times
daily said Farhan Malik, also known as Aftab Malik and Aftab Ansari, wanted to trade access to his crime network across India for weapons and training from terrorist groups based in Pakistan.
It said Mr Farhan plotted to kill scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, known as Missile Man, attack an atomic research centre in the country's commercial capital, Bomay, and kidnap cricket captain Saurav Ganguly and star batsman Sachin Tendulkar.
Mr Tendulkar was to be ransomed and Mr Ganguly to be held to force the release of a jailed Lashkar guerrilla.
Although Mr Farhan, subject of an Interpol arrest warrant, is based in Dubai, he is now in Islamabad, the paper quoted the document saying.
Some of Mr Farhan's men were trained in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of two Islamic militant groups India blames for a December 13 attack on its parliament which triggered a military stand-off with nuclear rival Islamabad.
Officials say Mr Farhan's group and Lashkar also staged last week's attack at the US cultural centre in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta in which four police guards were gunned down.