India suspect 'confesses to Sept. 11-style plot'

Indian Home Minister LK Advani says the suspect made "shocking confessions"

By Suhasini Haidar, CNN New Delhi

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani says a man arrested in Mumbai has confessed to planning September-11th style attacks on buildings in India, Australia and Britain.

He said that Indian police believe the man, nicknamed "the pilot", to be an Al Qaeda operative and say he underwent flight training in the U.K. and Australia.

The suspect, Mohammed Afroz, whose nationality has not been revealed, had made a "startling confession of the conspiracy" planned, and his government was sharing the information given with intelligence agencies in the U.K. and Australia, Advani said.

"We have been able to verify the information and confirm it. So there is truth to what he has said."

The Home Minister was speaking to a group of business leaders in the Indian capital about the need to adopt hard measures to tackle the problem of terrorism in India.

To that end, the government is planning to introduce a new anti-terrorism law in the current winter session of parliament - despite widespread opposition from other parties.

The Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, or POTO, as it is called, has to be cleared by the Indian parliament in the current winter session.

'Fascist' government

The Ordinance may run into trouble, as it has yet to win the support of opposition groups in India, namely the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress Party and the Left-wing Communist Parties (CPI and CPM). Those groups can effectively block the bill in parliament's Upper House.

Members of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Congress clashed in New Delhi earlier this week over the issue of POTO.

The opposition parties claim the Bill is unnecessary, and will be misused by the BJP against political rivals. "It echoes the real intention of this fascist autocratic government", read a statement by the Communist Party (Marxist) politburo.

A clause that would punish any journalist who interviews a member of a terrorist organization, with fines and possible imprisonment has also drawn considerable flak from the Indian media.

Banned groups

The government says it will reconsider the clause affecting journalists, but would not give up on the Bill itself.

It plans to introduce POTO in the lower house of parliament around December 11th and in the upper house on the 18th.

Already 23 groups, mainly those operating in the violence-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir, have been banned under the POT Ordinance.

On Wednesday, the Union Home Ministry, headed by L.K. Advani announced the banning of 2 more groups, the People's War Group, and the Maoist Communist Centre, that were implicated in the bombing of a Coca Cola factory in Hyderabad last month.

The government says the Ordinance is essential for its war against terrorism, accusing the opposition parties of opposing it for "political reasons" and saying that the Congress Party is putting itself "above the national interest".