December 15, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 29, 1422

MUMBAi, Dec 14: Scotland Yard detectives and Australian police were meeting their Indian counterparts on Friday after an alleged member of Al-Qaeda reportedly confessed here to plans for terrorist strikes on both countries, officials said.

The investigators were meeting Indian officials after Mohammad Afroz Abdul Razzak, arrested in October in Bombay, said Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network had formed suicide squads for attacks in Britain and Australia, in addition to New York’s World Trade Center and the Indian parliament.

“The two teams are now discussing chances of attacks on Australia’s Rialto Towers and the House of Commons of Britain after the attack on our parliament. We are giving them all the required information,” said Chagan Bhujbal, deputy chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Bhujbal said it was unclear whether the Australian and British police would interrogate Afroz.

Earlier this month London’s Daily Telegraph quoted British intelligence sources as dismissing Indian reports that suicide bombers planned to crash airplanes into the British parliament.—AFP