Terror attack in India foiled by Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: A sinister plot to attack foreign missions in Chennai and Bangalore has been foiled with a South Asian suspect being arrested here for terror activities, Malaysian police said on Thursday.

The man is believed to be involved in a plan to attack foreign consulates in Chennai and Bangalore, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Bakri Zinin said. A Special Branch Counter Terrorism Unit arrested the man at about 11.15 am (local time) yesterday following a raid in a housing area in Kepong near Kuala Lumpur.

The unit had been monitoring the man since December last year after “we discovered that he was involved in planned terror attacks,” Bakri was quoted by The Star as saying.

He said that the information obtained from the surveillance on the man was channeled to Indian authorities on April 9.

Last month, India's central security agencies claimed that Pakistan's ISI had plans to carry out terror attacks on two foreign consulates in India with evidence for this reportedly given by a Sri Lankan national, arrested from Chennai, during his interrogation. Official sources had claimed back then that Sakir Hussain told his interrogators that he had been hired allegedly by an official in Pakistani High Commission in Colombo as per the alleged ISI plans to conduct reconnaissance of US Consulate in Chennai and Israeli Consulate in Bangalore.

Hussain was arrested last month in a coordinated operation involving various countries including Malaysia. On April 29, three men were detained in India, all believed to be major players in the terrorist network, the Malaysian daily said.