NIA investigations have revealed that it was during his posting at the Pakistani high commission in Sri Lanka in 2014 when he had planned the terror strikes.

New Delhi: National Investigation Agency has started the process for getting a Red Corner Notice issued against a Colombo-based Pakistani diplomat, Amir Zubair Siddiqui, for hatching a conspiracy to carryout terror attacks on the US and Israeli consulates across Southern India. NIA had also filed a chargesheet against Siddiqui a few days ago.

Sources said NIA was in the process of finalising all the documents related to the case to be sent to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France, which is the competent authority for issuing the Red Corner Notice.

NIA investigations have revealed that it was during his posting at the Pakistani high commission in Sri Lanka in 2014 when he had planned the terror strikes.

The Pakistani diplomat’s name had come up during the custodial interrogation of a Sri Lankan resident Sakir Hussain, who was arrested in a joint operation  by the Intelligence Bureau and the Tamil Nadu police in 2014. Hussain is currently in jail as he had pleaded guilty in court.

During interrogation Hussain had claimed that he had done a detailed survey of the US consulate in Chennai and Israeli consulate in Bangalore to conducting  terror attacks and that two terrorists for this purpose were to be flown in from Maldives. NIA officials claimed that Siddiqui was posted as a visa counsellor at the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo but was sent back to Islamabad as

India had given detailed evidence to the Sri Lankan Government regarding his involvement in terror activities.

The US security agencies too had provided evidence to their Indian counterparts regarding communication between Hussain and one Shahjee, a Pakistani national who was allegedly introduced to the accused allegedly by the Pakistani diplomat. The US authorities had helped NIA in providing details regarding exchange of e-mails between Hussain, Shahjee and Siddiqui who was using his personal account for communicating with the other accused. Investigations also revealed that Siddiqui’s e-mail account was being operated using the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the Pakistan high commission in Colombo.

The terror operation had been code named “wedding hall” and the terrorists were called “cooks.”   “Spice” was the code name for the bomb devices which were to be planted at the consulates., they said.

NIA had taken over investigations into the case from the Tamil Nadu Police. NIA conducted detailed investigations into the case claiming that Hussain along with the Pakistani diplomat had planned to execute terrorist acts at foreign consulates and to circulate high quality fake Indian currency notes with a view to threaten the security and monetary stability of the country.