In a major joint operation on Monday, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch police nabbed a 45-year-old man hailing from Adhirampattinam in Thanjavur district just before he was to take a flight to Colombo to hand over sensitive military information to an ISI contact in the Pakistan high commission there.
This is the first time in south India that an ISI module is being busted. A possible terror strike in the south may also have been averted by this timely action. “We have been watching him for quite sometime. We got him red-handed now, with documents and CDs showing important military areas and also landing points in the southern coastline. He was carrying a DVD of training paratroopers landing in some desert and also a Signal Corps parade”, a top official told DC.
The official added that the man, Ansari alias Thameem Ansari, a resident of Azhagammal Nagar in Thanjavur, was intercepted near the TVS Tollgate in Tiruchy while proceeding to the airport to board the flight to Colombo. “He was carrying CDs of extensive footage that he had shot of the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington and other military places. There were visuals of even the Indian Army insignia that our army officers wear on their shirts, which makes us suspicious that it was meant to smuggle in terrorists into Wellington and other sensitive places dressed like Indian Army officers,” said the official requesting anonymity.
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Rushdie slams reaction to ‘stupid’ anti-islam film
Mumbai, Sept. 17: British author Salman Rushdie, wanted dead by Islamic extremists, has described as “disgusting” the anti-American attacks across the world by angry Muslims over a “stupid” film mocking Islam.
He said the video on YouTube “looks like the worst little clip ever made”, but there could be no justification for responding with “mayhem and murder”.
An Iranian foundation has reportedly increased a bounty for the death of Mr Rushdie to $3.3 million, saying that if he had previously been killed for blasphemy, the film currently enraging Muslims would never have been made.
Since 1989, the Indian-born author has been the target of a Iranian fatwa calling for his murder for allegedly blaspheming Islam and its Prophet Mohammed in his book The Satanic Verses.
In an interview with television news channel in London, posted on their website on Monday, Mr Rushdie also said during the interview with the news channel that the anti-Islam video was “clearly a very highly manipulative incident”.
“But it’s more disgusting to attack and murder people who have nothing to do with it,” he said, without referring to the bounty on his own head.
“This idea that somehow ‘America’ is responsible for the deeds of every American is a stupid mistake, and in this case is a fatal mistake,” he said. — AFP