The Middle East Newsline has confirmed Saudi Arabia has warned its nationals of the prospect of an imminent attack by al-Qaida in India.

Al-Qaida was believed to have targeted Saudi diplomatic and trade interests in several Indian cities.

“We have detected this threat after [the November 2008 al-Qaida-aligned seaborne strike in] Mumbai,” an official said. “We assess that al-Qaida believes it would be easier to attack Saudis in India than in the kingdom.”

Indian intelligence relayed the warning of al-Qaida’s plans to attack Saudi facilities such as the Saudi consulate and the state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines in Mumbai. They said Mumbai contains al-Qaida sleeper cells that were identifying Saudi and other targets.

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Saudi nationals in India have also been ordered to avoid appearing in groups. Officials said 350 Saudi university students were enrolled in India.

India and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in an intelligence exchange in the effort to prevent al-Qaida attacks. Officials said the exchange intensified in wake of the Mumbai strike, in which nearly 200 people were killed.

The Jedda-based Arab News quoted a senior Indian police official as saying that New Dehli intercepted communications between Islamic insurgency groups.

The communications reported al-Qaida infiltration of India and plans to attack Saudi interests in Mumbai.

“There is high possibility of Saudi aircraft being hijacked from Indian airports,” the Arab News said.

A key concern, officials said, was that al-Qaida was being aided in India by Pakistani-based insurgency groups. They cited Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which are said to have been linked to the November Mumbai attack.

“The most valued target of al-Qaida would be the blowing up of a Saudi airliner, and we have received tremendous cooperation from Indian authorities,” the official said. “But there are other Saudi targets that would also be important.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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