Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said on Friday that there was a Pakistan link to the terror plot to attack National Defence College (NDC) at New Delhi which became known after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested in U.S. last month two Pakistan expatriates David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
In fact, two or more people were arrested in Pakistan on the FBI’s advice and the link was also pointed out in Headley’s own confession which was submitted by the federal investigating agency to a court in Chicago, Mr. Chidambaram told journalists on the sidelines of a passing out parade at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy here.
The Minister was responding to a question whether he was aware of Pakistan’s link to terror plot to attack the NDC which was busted by US. He replied in the affirmative but said he was not sure whether the media was aware of it.
Mr. Chidambaram denied the allegation that government had launched an ‘Operation Greenhunt’ in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and other States to flush out the Maoists and said it was the creation of the media. He added that counter insurgency was dealt by State governments and the role of the Centre was limited to providing paramilitary forces, sharing intelligence inputs with States and giving them technical support.
Asked whether there was any favourable response from the Maoists to his offer to hold talks with them, he said, “Ask the Maoists.”
The Minister asked the media not to create an alarming situation by focussing on possible terror attacks ahead of November 26, the anniversary of the Mumbai attacks. The security forces were capable of thwarting any attack.
To another question, he said, the Special Protection Group of the Prime Minister and the local police had learnt lessons from the incident in Chandigarh, where a patient died due to lack of medical attention following traffic restrictions for the Prime Minister’s visit.
