Plot to kill Thackeray bared

The Bombay police crime branch has foiled a plot by an alleged agent of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to assassinate Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray Wednesday, on the fourth anniversary of the March 12, 1993 serial bomb blasts in the city.

City Police Commissioner S C Malhotra told the press that the Crime Branch arrested the accused, Abdulla Salafi Tuesday. Salafi had allegedly planned to bomb "Matushree", the residence of the Sena chief at Bandra in north-west Bombay as well as the office of Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece at Prabhadevi in central Bombay.

Salafi, a trained hand in using remote control and timing devices in bombs, was arrested from Mumbra in the adjacent Thane district. A few notes written in Arabic and Urdu were seized from him. Though no weapons were found where Salafi was arrested, during interrogation he disclosed where he had kept the device he planned to use in the execution of his plan.