JeM men had 'garland of grenades' for Rahul

New Delhi: The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants, arrested in UP last week, had planned to garland Rahul Gandhi with grenades before kidnapping him to press for their demands for the release of some dreaded terrorists currently held in Indian jails, including Parliament attack accused Mohammed Afzal.

Interrogation of the three JeM militants has revealed that they would have garlanded the young Gandhi with grenades before taking him hostage. They were planning to then bargain for the some of their men.

The interrogation of Mohammed Abid, Yusuf and Mirza Rashid, who had been three arrested in Lucknow last week, were carried out Central security agencies.

According to the plan, the three were shown videos of Rahul Gandhi during their stay in Sialkot (Pakistan) where they were also trained by Ibrahim Ather (one of the hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane) and Abdul Rauf, brother-in-law of Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar.

Ather and Rauf were on the list of 20 most wanted terrorists based in Pakistan that New Delhi handed over to Islamabad five years back. An Interpol notice exists against the two and he remains on every terror list India has made after that to make its case against Pakistan.

The task of the three militants was to recce the areas where Rahul Gandhi, MP from Amethi, used to visit and later chalk out a plan for taking him as hostage. The militant outfit had also planned to seek the intervention of the UN for the release of their men lodged in various jails.

The sources said the three militants had entered into the country separately through the international border in Jammu region before starting their journey together from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. After purchasing a car, they replaced its number plate with that of a truck and started roaming in the Lucknow city to find a suitable location as their hideout.

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However, they ran short of luck as their activities came in the radar of the intelligence agencies which laid a trap with the UP police and arrested them.

The arrest of the trio was a well-executed operation by the Central security agencies and the UP Police and it brought to light that the outfit was concentrating only on big targets for sometime now instead of carrying out suicide attacks or triggering explosions.

The JeM gained notoriety after hijacking Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999, carrying out Parliament attack, killing of Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl and the attack on Jammu and Kashmir state Assembly.

The Union Home Ministry has already reviewed the security arrangements of all the VVIP, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka and Rahul.

The ministry has examined the security measures at the AICC headquarters and ordered necessary arrangements to further strengthen the security cover for Rahul Gandhi, who was appointed the AICC General Secretary earlier this month.

The elite Special Protection Group, providing security to the Gandhi family, has however informed the MHA meeting that there was no security threat to anyone as all security measures had been taken.

(With PTI inputs)