India To Send Intelligence Officers To Chicago To Question Terror Suspect

India's government confirms it is cooperating with the U.S. FederalBureau of Investigation concerning a foiled terror plot allegedlyinvolving two Chicago residents. Meanwhile, India is denying that afamous Indian political figure was an intended target of the suspects.

U.S.and Indian government investigators are sharing information in the caseof two men under arrest in Chicago who were allegedly plotting aterrorist attack in India.

The case has generated concernamong India's security establishment, still reeling from the largeterror attack on Mumbai 11 months ago.

Indian government officialssay senior officers from two intelligence agencies, the Research &Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau will travel to the UntiedStates next week to interview at least one of the suspects in custody,identified as David Coleman Headley, also known as Daaud Gilani. Theinvestigators, officials here say, want to try to determine theintended target and when the alleged attack was to be carried out.

India'sgovernment on Friday acknowledged that Headley had apparently traveledto India several times. He was apprehended October 3 at a Chicagoairport as he was preparing to begin a trip to Pakistan.

This image taken from video shows a courtroom artists drawing of Tahawwur Hussain Rana appears at a bond hearing before federal Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan in Chicago, 28 Oct 2009Also arrested this month in the same case: Tahawwur Hussein Rana, a native Pakistani with Canadian citizenship.

Prosecutors say both men attended the same military school in Pakistan.
An alleged target of the plot in India, according to an FBI affidavit, was named "Rahul."

Thathas set off intense speculation here about the identity of the intendedvictim with published reports mentioning high-profile Congress Partypolitician Rahul Gandhi, whose father and grandmother, both primeministers, were assassinated.

India's home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, is trying to knock down such speculation.

"It could be a pseudonym," he said. "It could be a code name, but please be assured it's not the Rahul that you think it is."

Otherreports say the target appears to have been a film actor, perhapsBollywood super star Shahrukh Khan, who plays characters named Rahul inmost of his films.

Besides India, the defendants allegedlyalso planned to carry out attacks in Denmark, where a newspaper cartoonof the Prophet Mohammad in 2005 was published, offending many Muslims.

TheFBI documents indicate Headley was in repeated contact with members ofthe Pakistan-based terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group is blamedfor the late November, 2008 siege of Mumbai, which left more than 160people dead.  

The U.S. State Department has issued a freshtravel alert for India, saying the U.S. government continues to receiveinformation that terrorist groups may be planning attacks here.