Shillong: Mominul Haq, a law student here, has confessed to sending the e-mail threatening to assassinate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani during his visit to the Meghalaya capital next week, officials said Friday.

"Mominul Haq broke down after hours of interrogation and confessed to sending an e-mail in the name of the Indian Mujahideen to kill Advani. He said he did so because he felt that Muslims were being persecuted in the country," a police official said.

An e-mail in the name of the Indian Mujahideen was sent to journalists in Shillong. It threatened to kill Advani using suicide bombers during his scheduled visit to Shillong Sep 29.

"We have also detained about seven to eight more other suspects and are now trying to verify if these people have any links with the Indian Mujahideen or other Islamist terror outfits or radical fundamentalist groups," the police official said.

The e-mail was sent from a cyber café in the Laban area of Shillong, a locality dominated by Muslims.

"We have vowed to kill Advani on his visit to Shillong on Sep 29. We have already convened a meeting of field commanders to decide as to how revenge could be taken," the e-mail said.

The statement e-mailed to local journalists and newspaper offices in Meghalaya was received from a mail ID alihussainbadr@rediffmail.com and claimed to be from Ali Hussain Badr, field commander of the Indian Mujahideen in the northeast.

Advani is due to arrive in Assam's main city of Guwahati Sep 28 and then visit Meghalaya's capital Shillong Sep 29.

The BJP leader is arriving in the northeast on a three-day visit as part of the party's Sankalp Rally - a country wide campaign pledging to win the next general elections.

"Our main objective is to blow Advani into pieces. Our suicide bombers are ready for this prestigious assignment," the statement said.

The statement accused Advani and the BJP for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the recent attacks on churches across India.

"Advani's Hindutva demand seems to push India into a fascist mould and as is well known, the proclaimed and identified main enemies of the architects of Hindutva are the Muslims and the Christians," it added.

Although the police has cracked the terror plot to kill Advani, the Meghalaya government is not taking any chances.

"We will continue to have tight security even though we have been able to arrest the person behind the e-mail," Meghalaya Chief Minister Donkupar Roy said.

 

Source : IANS