TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Undertrial terror suspect Nasir Raizuddin, who has been arrested in connection with the Bangalore blasts told the Karnataka Police, during interrogations that he and a SIMI activist had planned serial bomb blasts along the beaches in Goa which were frequented by foreigners, a declassified cable communication drafted by David T. Hopper, then consul general at the US consulate in Chennai in February 2008 reveals.
This gains significance especially since various state governments have repeatedly been insisting that Goa was not on the radar of terrorist organizations and was by and large ‘safe’.
Raizuddin who is being tried for the 2008 Bangalore serial blasts, and associates had identified Goa’s beaches as a potential target owing to the fact that they were frequented by foreigners, Hopper stated in the cables.
“Raziuddin told the police that he, along with Asif, Asadulla, and a SIMI activist named Adanan (aka Hafeez or Afeez) planned serial bomb blasts at multiple locations. The specific targets included: beaches in Goa frequented by foreigners,” the cable reads.
The suspected terrorists were extensively interrogated by the Karnataka police, before they confessed.
Their other targets included “police headquarters in Andhra Pradesh; “important religious places,” including targets belonging to the Muslim community, in Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, and Udupi (all in Karnataka); Infosys (one of India’s largest formation technology companies) campuses in Bangalore and Mangalore; “vital installations” in Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad and Bangalore, and prominent people opposed to Islam.
Goa has hitherto not been witness to terror acts, save for a bomb blast in Margao allegedly carried out by members of the Sanatan Sanstha, that went off prematurely, killing two of the arsonists ferrying it to the site.
