Bosnia: Terrorist attack outside of US Embassy

A man opened fire with an automatic weapon on Saturday in what authorities called a terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Bosnia.

A policeman and the gunman were wounded, but the embassy said none of its employees was hurt.

Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen said the gunman "got off a tram with a Kalashnikov and started shooting at the American Embassy." Witnesses told Bosnian television that the man urged pedestrians to move away, saying he was targeting only the embassy.

He wore a beard and was dressed in an outfit with short pants that reveal his ankles typical for followers of the conservative Wahhabi branch of Islam.

One police officer guarding the building was wounded before police surrounded the gunman. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and AP video showed the shooter slump to the ground.

Police arrested the wounded man who one of Bosnia's three presidents said is a foreigner and took him away in an ambulance as pedestrians cowered behind buildings and vehicles.

Hospital spokeswoman Biljana Jandric told The Associated Press the gunman had a minor wound to his leg, and would spend the night at the hospital before being released into police custody.

Bosnian TV identified the shooter as Mevlid Jasarevic, from Novi Pazar, Serbia. It said he is a Wahhabi follower. Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic confirmed his identity.

The Wahhabis are an extremely conservative branch which is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Explosive laden car found at Ambala rly station

Delhi Police officers probing the September 07 Delhi High Court blast have found a car packed with explosives at Ambala Cantt railway station.

As per reports, Thursday, the special police officers were tipped off about a possible terrorist attack at the railway station; they reached Ambala around 6.30 pm yesterday.

They identified an Indica car with the same registration number as revealed in the tip off, but they laid in wait hoping that someone would come to claim the car but after no one turned up till midnight, the cops decided to inspect the car.

The bomb squad was also called in, which found five kilograms of RDX, besides detonators and a timer device.

On further investigation, the Haryana Police found the registration number of the Indica — HR 03 0054 — to be fake. As per reports, originally, the number belongs to a car owned by a businessman named Rahul from Panchkula, near Chandigarh.

Reports quoting the investigators said that the explosives seem to be meant to target Delhi during the festive season.

Meanwhile, sources in the Delhi Police Special Cell have told that the explosives appear to have come from Jammu and Kashmir.

Why didn't the bomb explode? Afzal Guru wonders

Why did the bomb, planted in the car used during the 2001 Parliament attack, not explode? This question still puzzles convicted terrorist Afzal Guru, claims a 180-page manuscript by a Tihar jail superintendent.

"If the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament was a success then they would have made Jammu and Kashmir an international issue and would have entered into negotiations with the government," Guru -- the key accused in 2001 Parliament terror attack case -- is said to have told Manoj Diwvedi, Superintendent of Tihar Jail number 3.

Divided into six chapters, this document, starts with the attack itself and the first chapter tells the nitty- gritty of all that happened on December 13.

It ends when Guru, on death row, is finally held by the police, Diwedi said.

"They were very confident that the car fitted with improvised explosive device would go off. Guru told me that they had parked the car fitted with bombs and explosives in front of a police the previous night of the attack fearing that it might be stolen. Surprisingly no policeman bothered to check it."

"Sadly, the car bomb used in the December 13, 2001 attack, did not explode and till date Afzal Guru is clueless as to why it did not explode.

"If the attack would have been a success they had also names of people in their minds who they would want to negotiate with," says Diwvedi, who has been refused permission by the Tihar authorities to publish the book.

"This document is compiled after 200 hours conversation between me and Afzal Guru between March 2009 to December 2010," he said.

In one of the chapter, Diwvedi talks about Afzal's childhood and how he reached Pakistan.

"In my book I have mentioned all the reasons stated by Afzal for shifting to Pakistan and undergoing training as other terrorist did.

"He came back and realised that he was being used and decided to give up and lead a normal life.

"He had completed his first year in MBBS. He even tried for IES exam," says Diwvedi.

The book also gives the reasons why Guru, whose Brahmin family converted to Islam generations ago, returned to anti-national fold.

"One chapter is dedicated to Afzal Guru and how he carried out the planning for the attack. How they got the explosives and the RDX grenade the Chinese pistol and other things without being caught. How they arranged for their stay in Delhi, the recce done of the Parliament by people who were not Indian and did not understand any of the Indian language," Diwvedi said.