Indian police said Friday that Interpol “red corner” notices were being drawn up for three men of Iranian origin identified as suspects in an attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi.
Delhi police commissioner Brijesh Kumar Gupta also revealed that investigations had established a clear link between the February 13 attack and a similar plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok. Gupta said the red corner notices — tantamount to international arrest warrants — would be issued “in the next two days.” In the attack last month, a hitman on a rented motorbike attached a magnetic bomb to the back of an Israeli embassy car carrying the 42-year-old diplomat as she went to pick up her children from school.
The woman, also the wife of the defence attache at the embassy, was left in a critical condition with spinal injuries and has since been flown to Israel for further treatment. The three suspects were named as Houshang Ashfar Irani, Sayed Ali Sadr Mehdian and Abolghasemi Mohammad Reza — all now believed to be in Iran. Last week, a veteran Indian freelance journalist called Syed Mohammed Kazmi who worked part-time for Iran’s news agency IRNA became the first person arrested in connection with the attack. Gupta said interrogation of Kazmi, who denies involvement, had led to the “unravelling of the conspiracy.”
According to Gupta, Kazmi had helped the Iranians come to New Delhi to secure information on the movement of Israeli embassy officials and identify possible routes where a bomb attack could be carried out. A scooter that police believe was used to scope out the Israeli embassy was found at Kazmi’s house and Gupta said foreign remittances of around $43,000, “for which there is no satisfactory explanation,” were uncovered in the accounts of Kazmi and his wife. Israel immediately accused Iran of being behind the Delhi bombing which came on the same day as another attempted attack on an Israeli embassy car in Georgia. A day later, Thai police arrested two Iranian men in Bangkok who are suspected of planning a separate attack on Israeli diplomats. One of them had his legs blown off as he attempted to hurl an explosive device at police. A third Iranian suspect, Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, was detained in Malaysia where authorities on Thursday applied for a court order to extradite him to Thailand to face trial. Gupta said one of the three named for the Delhi attack, Houshang Ashfar Irani, had been in touch with Sedaghatzadeh, “thus establishing his links with the terror module in Bangkok.”
