Who is this Abu Nasir?

Relevant government ministries and intelligence agencies are looking into reports in two foreign newspapers that a Bangladeshi worked with international extremist groups and planned to carry out bomb attacks on U S consulates in Calcutta and Madras.

The New York Times Service published a report from Delhi that the Indian police had foiled a plot to bomb US consulates in Madras, and Calcutta with the arrest of a Bangladeshi, Sayed Abu Nasir, 27, who confessed working with an Islamic extremist group.

The report was also carried by the International Herald Tribune in its January 21 issue.

Officials in the Home and Foreign ministries on condition of anonymity told The Daily Star yesterday that they had seen the reports and were trying to verify Nasir's background.

A team of American counter-terrorism experts arrived in Delhi on Tuesday last to further investigate the matter.

A source however said the government has not as yet received any request from the US or Indian intelligence agencies or from Delhi police in this regard.

The reports claimed that four of Nasir's confederates were from Egypt, two from Sudan, and one from Myanmar. They are still at large, the report said.

"All the seven men crossed the porous border between Bangladesh and West Bengal in October last on their bombing mission and subsequently travelled to Madras and Calcutta to survey the US consulates for possible openings for an attack," the New York Times Service quoted Delhi police as saying.

Nasir also claimed to have undergone training at a camp in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden, the report said.