Slain terrorist Merah planned to attack Indian embassy in Paris
That was the target given by Taliban which prepared him for jihad, says Le Monde
Mohamed Merah, the terrorist who was shot dead by the French Special
Forces in Toulouse on March 22, had also planned to attack the Indian
Embassy in Paris, French daily Le Monde reported.
Quoting sources from the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence
and the Special Forces who took part in the 32-hour siege of Merah, Le
Monde alleges that the young killer's Taliban handlers in Pakistan had
ordered him to attack the Indian mission here. “That was the target
given him by the Taliban who prepared him for jihad during his training
in Pakistan in the summer of 2011,” Le Monde reported. However, the
paper says, Merah finally decided against the attack, given the
difficulty of the enterprise. These conversations between Merah and
Special Forces personnel were recorded and they are now part of the
judicial dossier.
Merah first killed three Army personnel outside their barracks on March
15. Four days later, he killed a Jewish Rabbi and his two sons at a
faith school, and then chased and killed a seven-year-old girl on the
school premises. Throughout, he filmed his acts with a video camera
strapped to his chest.
During the 32-hour siege, which ended in a bloody gun battle, he spoke
freely to policemen who continued to interrogate him over telephone. All
these conversations were recorded.
When asked by The Hindu whether this report was a matter of
serious concern for the Indian government, Ambassador Rakesh Sood said:
“The news report in Le Monde is something we have taken note of. We have
also taken it up with the authorities in France, in terms of the
veracity of the story as well as necessary steps to strengthen the
security arrangements at the Embassy and the Residence.”
Had Merah carried out his plans, was the Embassy protected enough or was
it vulnerable? To this question, Mr. Sood said the report, quoting
Merah, said he found the Embassy a difficult target. “Therefore what
exactly had he intended to do and that he was unable to do is something
that is difficult to know, now that he is no more. It is difficult to
figure out what exactly he had in mind. But somewhere in the Le Monde
report it does say that he desisted because of the difficulty of the
task. In any case, we are taking steps to strengthen the protection of
the Embassy.”
Lured into jihad
Well-placed sources in France who cannot be quoted say the French
intelligence services are extremely worried over the growing
radicalisation within the Muslim community here. France has the largest
concentration of Muslims in Europe, an estimated five million and it is
often the young, under-educated and unskilled Muslims of Arab origin,
who are radicalised and lured into jihad.
Merah is exactly one such youth of Algerian extraction. During his
conversations with the policemen, he deplored the fact that he had not
killed enough victims. “I did not kill enough,” he said, adding he did
not fear the Special Forces surrounding his first floor apartment
“because they love life, while I prefer death.”
Elder brother being questioned
The police are questioning his elder brother, Abdelkader Merah (29), who
remains in isolation at the prison in Fresnes. The older Merah admits
he helped his brother steal the scooter Mohamed Merah used during the
killings. The younger Merah would carry out armed robberies to finance
his trips to Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Iraq or
Israel. The fact that he travelled to Israel has given rise to the
suspicion that Merah was an intelligence agent or at least a pawn used
by the French spy agencies. With a name like Merah, the Israelis would
have been extremely reticent to let him in despite his having a French
passport, unless they had the green light from French services.
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