ASIO chasing up Rialto bomb claim
By MARTIN CHULOV
The Australian
08feb02
INDIAN spies and police will meet ASIO on Monday in an attempt to prove that a man being detained in Bombay is an al-Qa'ida member who planned to bring down Melbourne's Rialto Tower.
Three Indian agents will ask ASIO's Canberra-based counter-terrorist division for more details about Mohammed Afroz, 26, who attended a Melbourne flight school in late 1997 before leaving for India.
The Indian Government revealed Mr Afroz claimed to have teamed up with an al-Qa'ida cell that also planned to fly planes into London's Tower Bridge and a suicide attack on the Indian Parliament.
At the time of his arrest on October 2, Mr Afroz's claims were discredited. But a month later a suicide raid was launched on the New Delhi-based Parliament -- an attack that has taken India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
ASIO and Attorney-General Daryl Williams remain wary of Mr Afroz's story, with both maintaining that no known terrorist threat exists to Australia. "Some of the detail the man has revealed to Indian authorities has not been accurate," Mr Williams said yesterday.
Mr Afroz hails from a Bombay slum. He has been accused of "waging war against the nation of India" but has not been charged.
Indian Home Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said from Bombay yesterday Mr Afroz had told police four al-Qa'ida suicide squads had been formed, and only the first -- those who attacked the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon -- had successfully carried out their mission.
Mr Afroz was sent to pilot training in Moorabbin near Melbourne by a relative in London. There he frequented a local mosque and worked part-time in a cafe.
Australian investigators had not heard of the alleged Rialto plot before they were contacted by Indian investigators last November.
Mr Williams said the claims were still being investigated.
An ASIO officer and an investigator from Britain's domestic security service MI5 travelled to Bombay last December. But they but were denied access to Mr Afroz.