NIA wants to send a team to Sri Lanka to probe terror plan

NEW DELHI: Government is yet to decide on a proposal of National Investigation Agency to send a team to Sri Lanka to carry out further probe in an aborted international conspiracy to attack the US and Israeli consulates in South India.

Highly-placed sources said a proposal has been pending with the government for the last three months as the Indian High Commission in Colombo is yet to take permission from Sri Lankan government for allowing a NIA team to visit the island nation.

As per the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between the two countries signed in 2010, any requesting country can send its team to pursue and carry out further probe in that country.

Amir Zubair Siddiqui, former Visa Counsellor in Pakistani High Commission in Colombo, is accused by NIA as one of the co-conspirators in the plan to carry out terror strikes on the US consulate in Chennai and Israeli consulate in Bangalore.

The terror plot was unearthed by Malaysian Special task force which was investigating a routine human trafficking case. Immediately, Intelligence Bureau was informed who arrested one Sakir Hussain in Chennai.

Hussian, a Sri Lankan national, has since been convicted to five years imprisonment for being involved in the terror plan.

Besides probing the role of Siddiqui, NIA wanted to verify some of the phone numbers and also question people detained by the Lankan police in this connection.