UK, April 13, 2005
NRI Press
Surinder Mehta
The three men were arrested in England last August,
2004 including one NRI hindu from Gujrat who converted
to Islam at the age of 20. When he converted, he took
the name Abu Issa Al Hindi from his Gujarati parentage
name Dhiren Barot
The indictment charges Dhiran Barot, 32, Nadeem Tarmohamed,
26 and Qaisar Shaffi, 25, of conducting surveillance
as part of a plot to "use weapons of mass destruction,
... improvised explosive devices and bombs against
persons within the United States."
They were arrested after evidence of the surveillance
activity was uncovered in Pakistan, according to British
reports. The U.S. government raised the terrorist
threat level to "high" (orange) for the
targeted buildings in August, then returned it to
"elevated" (yellow, the middle of the five
threat levels) in November.
Esa Al-Hindi (NRI)
Before he was arrested last year from his flat in
Willesden, North London, Barot was under surveillance
because of his alleged Al Qa'eda connections and his
role as a commander in charge of militants in Kashmir.
He published a book in English about some of the
Kashmir operations in which he had been involved.
UK sources claim he functioned under the code name
Bilal and was allegedly in charge of a major training
camp in Kashmir.
Brother Esa is described in the book
as a Mujahid born into a Hindu household and
brought up in the UK before he converted to
Islam
He initially went to Azad Kashmir in the mid-1990s
to investigate the duty of Jihad. After training and
spending time with the Mujahideen, he witnessed a
side of Islam which cannot be found in classrooms.
It is the Islam that is felt by the living and dying
in the cause of Muslims and hating the enemies of
Allah.
Formal notification of the US charges against Barot,
now aged 32, have been conveyed to the British authorities
who are holding him, pending his UK trial early next
year.
He has been identified by U.S. officials as a senior
al Qaeda figure. The indictment said that in 1998,
Barot "served as lead instructor at a jihad training
camp in Afghanistan where recruits were taught to
use weapons and received other paramilitary training."
From the 9/11 commission REPORT, terror mastermind
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told interrogators he sent
Barot to Malaysia "to learn about the jihad in
Southeast Asia" in 1998 or 1999.
The report goes on to say Mohammed claimed al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden then directed Barot, then going
by the name al-Britani, to be sent to the United States
"to case potential economic and 'Jewish' targets
in New York City."
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Two others arrested with him and also charged with
terrorist offences in the US are Qaisar Shaffi, 25,
and 26-year-old Nadeem Tanmohammed, who are also from
the same part of North London as Barot.
US Justice Department authorities have explained
they will wait for the completion of the three mens
UK trials before they seek their extradition to the
US where they face possible life sentences over claims
that they plotted chemical or radioactive attacks
on the buildings they were observing.
US authorities have accused them of carrying out
surveillance of the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup
buildings in New York, and the headquarters of the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in
Washington. Five other men who were arrested and charged
along with Barot, Shaffi and Tanmohammed have not
been included in the US indictment.