Al-qaida Member Confesses Preparing Terrorist Attacks On Parliament Buildings In London And New Delhi And On High-rise Buildings In Sydney

Mohammed Afroz Abdul Razzak, a 25-year-old resident of Mumbai and member of the Al-Qaida terrorist organisation, has confessed that he prepared terrorist attacks on the parliament buildings in London and New Delhi and on high-rise buildings in Sydney. Afroz was detained by police on October 2 and officially arrested on December 3 after charges were brought against him. At a closed-door session of the court last night, he confessed that he was an Al-Qaida member. In the presence of the judge, Afroz said that together with other Al-Qaida agents he planned to hijack passenger airliners on September 11 to carry out terrorist attacks on the parliament buildings in London and New Delhi and on high-rise buildings in Sydney. According to an official police protocol, Afroz had earlier revealed that on September 11 he and four other terrorists came to London's Heathrow airport, planning to hijack an early morning London-Manchester airliner to attack the parliament building in London. However, the flight was cancelled, and the terrorist act was never carried out. Afroz returned to India on September 12. Afroz was born into a poor tailor's family and grew up in a poor district in northern Mumbai. He received secondary education at a state school. A rich relative living in London funded Afroz's initial pilot training in Mumbai in 1997. In subsequent years, before May 2000, Afroz improved his piloting skills in Australia, the United States and Britain. Simultaneously, already as a member of a group of 31 kamikaze pilots from South and West Asia, Afroz regularly met with Maulana Mansur Ilyas, the leader of the Verribia Islamic Centre in the Victoria State, Australia, who gave him instructions. According to police, there are solid grounds to believe that Ilyas is Al-Qaida's regional leader.