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U.S. indicts 3 including One NRI
as connections with al Qaeda

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 men’s 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.

 

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