Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Tamil Nadu police get arrest warrant for ISI man held in Malaysia

,TNN | May 28, 2014
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Q branch sleuths obtained an arrest warrant on Tuesday for a Sri Lankan national and suspected operative of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Mohammad Hossaini, arrested by the Malaysian police in Kepong near Kuala Lumpur. 

Hossaini was arrested on May 14. Investigators said Hossaini was a close aide of Sakir Hussain, another Sri Lankan national recruited by the ISI, who had been arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on April 29. 

Malaysian special units had been monitoring Hossaini since December last year and had informed Indian security agencies that he was part of a plot to carry out terror strikes on the US and consulate in Chennai and the Israeli consulate in Bangalore. 

Hossaini told the Malaysian police that he had received instructions to assist two men in the attacks on the US and Israeli consulates in Chennai and Bangalore. He also disclosed the name of his Pakistani handler. Hussain had disclosed a similar plot to the Tamil Nadu police. 

Hossaini could soon find himself in the custody of the Tamil Nadu police who want to arrest him in the case against Hussain. Police have included Hossaini in the First Information Report. 

The Tamil Nadu police will ask the CBI to start the extradition process for Hossaini. 

Investigators from the state will request Malaysian authorities to share the report from their interrogation of Hossaini, an investigating officer told TOI on Tuesday. 

Sources said Hossaini told the Malaysian police that Pakistan's spy agency planned to send two men from Maldives to Chennai and Bangalore, and he had been tasked with arranging for their travel documents and safe houses. 

Hussain had travelled from Colombo to Chennai and was arrested after being monitored by security agencies. He said that he had been chosen by the ISI because was had been engaged in human trafficking, forging passports and smuggling of fake Indian currency. 

Tamil Nadu Q branch sleuths have since 2012 suspected that an official in Pakistan's high commission in Colombo was the handler of ISI's Sri Lankan recruits. They learned this after the arrest of Thameem Ansari, who the Pakistani official assigned to conduct surveillance of Nagapattinam port and high-security installations in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states.