Indian Police agencies continue to do a fine job of stopping terrorism; today they arrested three members of Jaish e Muhammed, an Al Qaeda allied organisation, who were planning to kidnap the son of Congress Party Chief Sonia Ghandi.
Rahul Ghandi was saved by the action, and the three men and their weapons were taken into custody. Story at BBC:
The men belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammed group and were planning to kidnap a “very important political person”, the police said.
Local reports suggested the target could have been Rahul Gandhi, son of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Police said the arrested men were all Pakistanis.
The chief of Uttar Pradesh police Vikram Singh said the three men were arrested on the outskirts of the state capital, Lucknow.
He said the men were travelling from Delhi in a car.
Mr Singh said militants planned to kidnap a “very important person” in exchange for 42 militants lodged in various Indian prisons.
Ammunition, rifles, grenades and explosives were seized from the men, he said.
More at Stratfor and from Zee News:
Lucknow, Nov 16: In a major development, the UP Police and Special Task Force (STF) arrested three terrorists linked with the Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit here on Friday. The arrests followed a fierce encounter, which also led to the recovery of a huge cache of arms and explosives.
Addressing a press conference, the UP DGP Vikram Singh said that the Police had received crucial intelligence inputs about terrorists having recently entered Lucknow City to execute their nefarious designs. The terrorists planned to target VVIPs to create pressure on the government to release 42 militants in Indian jails. The idea was abduct well-known personalities including Rahul Gandhi and seek release of their associates as ransom. They also wanted the international community to intervene so as to highlight the matter.