HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: India on Friday said two persons have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with Lashkar-e-Taiba’s plot to target vital installations here, which was exposed in the US, showing the “obvious Pakistan link” to the conspiracy.

Pakistan, however, has provided no information to India in relation to the conspiracy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

“There is an obvious Pakistan link. (David Coleman) Headley visited Pakistan a number of times and I think on the advice of the FBI, two or perhaps more people have been arrested in Pakistan,” home minister P Chidambaram told reporters in Hyderabad about the plot which was foiled with the arrest of the LeT operative by the FBI last month.

He was asked if there was any input on Pakistan’s link to the plot to attack the prestigious National Defence College in New Delhi in which the FBI has arrested Headley, a US national, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian citizen and a resident of Chicago.

To a similar poser to Singh at a joint press conference with his Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt in Delhi, the Prime Minister said, “To the extent I have information on this Headley affair, I don’t think we have received any information from the Pakistani side.”

Chidambaram said affidavits have been filed by the FBI in connection with the plot in a Chicago court.

On whether the Indian government was informed about the LeT plan, Chidambaram replied in the affirmative.

“If you are asking whether I was informed about it, the answer is yes. If the question is whether you will be informed about it, the answer is no,” he quipped.

Details of conversation between Headley and Rana, submitted by prosecutors to the Chicago court, indicates that the LeT was giving priority to its attack on the National Defence College over other targets.

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PTI
November 6th, 2009