The new details provided further support for those who assert the Islamic Republic has launched a series of bombing plots, presumably in retaliation for the bombing deaths of three Iranian nuclear scientists.
Indian investigators had been instructed by political authorities to be careful about drawing conclusions implicating any foreign government in the bombing, but they finally broke their silence and said the bombers might be affiliated with Iranian spy agencies and bomb parts may have been shipped into India using uninspected diplomatic pouches.
“Diplomatic channels may have been used to smuggle the bomb into the country one piece at a time,” said a senior Indian police officer.
The Indian police have detained an Indian Muslim journalist, Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi, for his alleged assistance to three Iranian nationals in the attack. He is accused of staying in regular touch with the attackers and others inside Iran, scouting out the travel movements of the Israeli woman who was attacked and offering his house for the attackers in the days before the attack. The three accused Iranians all left India immediately after the bombing. Interpol has issued “red notices” to police forces around the world seeking the arrests of the three.
“Preliminary investigations suggest they belong to the Iranian spy agency,” The Times of India quoted an unnamed source as saying. Indian officials said they are sharing information with Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, about this attack.
In its first diplomatic contact with Iran since the February 13 blast, Indian officials called the Iranian ambassador, Mehdi Nabizadeh, and sought his country’s cooperation in investigating the case. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Iran is ready to help.
Indian officials have identified the mastermind of the attacks as Houshang Afshar Irani, 40. Information gleaned from captured cellphones suggests he was in touch with attack teams in all three locations—New Delhi, India; Bangkok, Thailand; and Tbilisi, Georgia.
“Through technical investigation and surveillance, the movements of Houshang Irani Ö have also been traced to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital,” said a senior Indian police official.
“Though we are still in the process of verifying it, we have reasons to suspect that Irani, who seems to have been the main field operative for this [Indian] module, had also been to Bangkok before [the] Feb. 13 [attack there],” the officer added.
Indian investigators found a SIM card in a cellphone thought to have been used by Irani to keep in touch with the operatives in Bangkok and Tbilisi.
The investigators believe three Iranian men were involved in the Delhi attack, and have identified Ali Sadr Mahdian, 50, and Mohammad-Reza Abol-ghasemi, 47, as Irani’s accomplices. All three men had entered India at different times, remained in touch during their stay, and flew out separately.
Interpol has issued “red notices” against these men and against Masud Sedaghatzadeh, 31, another Iranian who is alleged to have been involved in the Bangkok bombing. A red notice alerts police forces around the world that the person named in the notice is wanted somewhere in the world.
Sedaghatzadeh is already in Malaysian custody as he was arrested after the Bangkok bombing plot failed due to an accidental, premature detonation. Sedaghatzadeh appeared before a Kuala Lumpur court in handcuffs, demanding to know why he was detained and denying any involvement in the attack.
Sedaghatzadeh’s Malaysian lawyer, Nashir Husain, said his client was not involved in any bombing plots and was only in Thailand for a vacation before coming to Malaysia to buy auto parts for his business in Tehran.
“He met a lot of Iranians there, took pictures, said hello and goodbye,” Husain said. “He does not know any of them; he can’t remember anyone. He is incriminated by the pictures,” he told reporters. Sedaghatzadeh’s parents also attended the hearing, but they did not speak to reporters.
Sedaghatzadeh was photographed alongside two other Iranians at a Thai bar, fraternizing with two women. One of the women took a cell phone picture of the group, which the police used to establish a connection between Sedaghatzadeh and the other two attackers. But in addition to the picture, surveillance TV footage shows Sedaghat-zadeh walking out of a Bangkok house after a bomb blew the roof of the building off. The other two men seen in the bar room photo were also seen in the surveillance footage fleeing the building.
In the meantime, a tug of war has ensued between Thai and Malaysian authorities, both of whom want custody of Sedaghatzadeh for legal proceedings. For now, he remains in Malaysian custody until extradition proceedings are completed. He is scheduled to appear before the Malaysian court on April 16, as Malaysian prosecutors await the receipt of the surveillance video from Thai authorities.
Indian authorities are also investigating how a sum of about $40,000 was deposited into the account of the wife of Kazmi, the alleged Indian conspirator in the Delhi blast. He could face charges of money laundering if authorities cannot satisfactorily determine how the large sum materialized in the account.
Kazmi, a veteran Indian journalist, is accused of helping Abolghasemi and Mehdian conduct reconnaissance of the Israeli embassy in Delhi, noting the entry and exit of Israeli diplomats and identifying the vehicles.
On February 13, police say the third attacker – Houshang Irani – borrowed a motor scooter from the employee of the hotel where he was staying and intercepted an Israeli embassy vehicle, attaching a magnetic bomb to the car and speeding away. The vehicle carried Tal Yahoshua-Koren, the wife of an Israeli diplomat, who was on her way to pick up her son from the American school. Yahoshua-Koren was injured in the subsequent blast, but she is now recovering in Israel from her wounds.
Indian officials also said they are investigating another Indian citizen thought to have assisted the Iranians in carrying out the attacks. They did not provide any further details about that person.
