November 17, 2007	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 06, 1428

LUCKNOW, Nov 16: Indian police claimed on Friday that they had foiled a plot by Muslim militants to kidnap a top politician — reported to be Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty.

NDTV, one of India’s leading news outlets, said the three militants planned to abduct the 37-year-old federal parliamentarian to bargain for the release of scores of imprisoned comrades.

Police would not publicly confirm the identify of the politician targeted by the suspected militants, arrested after a tip-off on Friday morning near Lucknow, capital of northern UP.

Senior police officer Vikram Singh said the suspects “wanted to kidnap a very, very important political leader... to create national and international pressure to secure the release of 42 terrorists.”

Another senior police official, who asked to remain unnamed, said the men were arrested “following an alert from the federal Intelligence Bureau” that Gandhi was the target.

Police claimed that the three suspects were Pakistani nationals and named them as Mohammed Abid, Mirza Rashid Beg and Yusuf. The men were caught after a car chase in which their vehicle got caught in a sand pit, police said.

“These are no ordinary terrorists... we are not going to take them lightly,” said Mr Singh. A huge cache of arms, including assault rifles, explosives, detonators and grenades allegedly recovered from the three was displayed to reporters.—AFP