While police have not divulged the name of the leader, sources say it could be Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, who was in Lucknow earlier this week.

The three, Mirza Rashid Beg, Mohammed Abid and Yusuf alias Faisal, carrying fake Jammu and Kashmir identity cards, have confessed to receiving training for fidayeen attacks in Afghanistan and Muzaffarabad and Balakote in Pakistan. Between the ages of 22-27, the men are from Gujaranwala, Lahore and Multan respectively. They had come to Delhi from Jammu aboard the Sampark Kranti Express.

In a laptop bag hidden behind the rear seat of the car were four kilograms of RDX. Two AK 47 rifles, four magazines, 120 cartridges of AK-47, three Chinese pistols, 101 live and 15 used cartridges of 30 bore, five detonators, 16 Chinese grenades and Rs 24,300 were recovered from their possession.

UP Director General of Police Vikram Singh said that the three had planned to kidnap a “very important political person” and “create chaos in the state and the country to bring international pressure to release their counterparts”.

Their plan involved finding employment at the target’s office to ease proximity to him.

The trio were then to ask for two BBC journalists Yusuf Jameel and Altaf Hussain to conduct negotiations on their behalf with the Indian government. Their training included going through recordings of their target’s movements, meetings and public rallies.
While Mohammad Abid had been trained in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2006 in Muzaffarabad (PoK), Yusuf had undergone training in Balakote in 2007 and Mirza Rashid Beg had been trained in Afghanistan in 2000. The three have been involved in at least two other terrorist attacks in the Valley earlier this year.

The police has released a lit of 42 terrorists including Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru and Yusuf Nepali of the Kandhar hijack who was to be freed for letting off the kidnap victim.

This is the state police’s second major strike of the year. On June 23 they had nabbed two Harkat-ul-Jihad Al Islam (HuJI) militants. Intelligence reports have indicated that half of the state is on the Pakistan’s ISI radar.

DENIAL
Lucknow, PTI: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied reports that Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was on the hit-list of the three Jaish-e-Mohammed militants arrested here on Friday morning.