Close X
Sunday, November 10, 2024
ADVT 
International

Pakistani man charged in elaborate assassination plot against Trump

Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Aug, 2024 04:03 PM
  • Pakistani man charged in elaborate assassination plot against Trump

New York, Aug 7 (IANS) A Pakistani citizen has been charged in an elaborate plot that reads like a spy thriller to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who announced the charges against Asif Merchant on Tuesday, indicated that the target was Trump, but did not name him.

"For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran's brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani," he said.

Trump was the US President who ordered the killing of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020, which points the assassination plot towards Trump.

According to court documents, others may also have been intended victims because of the mention of targets in the plural.

Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) Chief Christopher Wray said, "This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today's charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook."

The alleged plotter, who is also known as Asif Raza Merchant, told officials that he has two wives, one each in Pakistan and in Iran, as well as children in both countries.

In the complaint filed in the Federal court in Brooklyn, the plot reads like a spy thriller with an elaborate scheme to burglarise the home of a target, creating diversions with protests and rallies, and killing the politician.

It also included a show of bonding between Merchant, 46, and the undercover officers he thought were professional killers.

The court papers said the plot involved multiple elements: stealing documents or USB drives from a target's home; planning protests, and killing a politician or government official.

Merchant made up code names for each element in the plot: "tee-shirt" for protests, "flannel shirt" for stealing documents, "fleece jacket" for the assassination, and "yarn-dye" for their meetings.

To entice the person he contacted first and who informed officials, Merchant told him that he has an uncle in the "yarn-dyed" business in Pakistan and he could go into business with them.

He asked the government source he thought was an assassin for hire to explain how the target would die in different scenarios.

The revelation about this plot comes less than a month after the July 13 failed assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

However, there does not seem to be a connection between the plot by Merchant and that attempt, which officials have said was carried out by a lone wolf, a person unconnected to any group or organisation.

The plot failed because Merchant tried to recruit FBI agents for the assassination attempt.

"Fortunately, the assassins Merchant tried to hire were undercover FBI agents," said Christie Curtis, the Acting Assistant Director of the New York FBI Field Office.

He was arrested on July 12 as he was getting ready to catch a flight out of the country.

Merchant arrived in the US in April from Pakistan after spending time in Iran, according to the version of the plot in court papers.

He contacted a person he thought could help him and that person reported it to law enforcement and became a confidential source.

In mid-June, Merchant met with people he thought were hitmen, but were undercover US law enforcement officers (the UCs) in New York.

He told them he wanted them to steal documents, arrange protests at political rallies, and kill a "political person".

The plot would have to be carried out after he left the country and in either the last week of August or the first week of September they would be told who the target was, Merchant told the undercover officers.

He received $5,000 from overseas and made a down payment to the undercover agents.

According to the court papers, one of the agents said after getting the money, "Now we know we're going forward. We're doing this," to which Merchant responded: "Yes, absolutely."

Political violence is a constant worry in the US.

Last week, a man was arrested in Virginia for allegedly threatening to kill the Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

"Kamala Harris needs to be put on fire alive. I will do it personally if no one else does... I want her to suffer a slow agonising death," Frank Lucio Carillo posted on a right-wing social media site, according to the FBI complaint in a Federal court.

He also allegedly threatened President Joe Biden and FBI Chief Wray.

MORE International ARTICLES

Biden forgets how to pronounce Kamala Harris' name!

Biden forgets how to pronounce Kamala Harris' name!
During a speech on Tuesday at a White House celebration for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, Biden said: "As 'CAM-a-la' said, we're all closely monitoring the storms, the floods, the landslides all across California." Biden -- the oldest-ever president at 80 -- is set to launch a 2024 re-election campaign, even as detractors question his 'mental acuity'.

Biden forgets how to pronounce Kamala Harris' name!

UK court sentences Sikh man for drunk-driving

UK court sentences Sikh man for drunk-driving
Police found open cans of alcohol in Sukhpreet Singh's car after he was followed through a Derbyshire town swerving across lanes in November last year.  The Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court heard that Singh, a Pizza Hut worker and a resident of Higher Albert Street, Chesterfield, was driving without a license.

UK court sentences Sikh man for drunk-driving

Man found guilty in death of 5 year-old Indian-American child

Man found guilty in death of 5 year-old Indian-American child
The bullet discharged from a 9-mm handgun when Smith used it to strike the other man. It missed the man but went into the apartment and struck Mya in the head before grazing her mother, the Times reported. Mya was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she battled for three days before being declared dead on March 23.

Man found guilty in death of 5 year-old Indian-American child

Sikh family alleges racial discrimination at Windsor Castle, threatens legal action

Sikh family alleges racial discrimination at Windsor Castle, threatens legal action
Rapinder Kaur, 36, said she, her turban-wearing husband and their two-year-old child were subjected to racial taunts by guards during a visit to the castle last year, The Independent reported.

Sikh family alleges racial discrimination at Windsor Castle, threatens legal action

21 year old Indian student, Kunal Kapoor, from Punjab dies in Australia car crash

21 year old Indian student, Kunal Kapoor, from Punjab dies in Australia car crash
Kunal Chopra was returning from work when his Hyundai Getz collided head-on with a concrete pumping truck on William Hovell Drive last week, SBS Punjabi, a multicultural and multilingual broadcaster in Australia, reported. The Australian Capital Territory Ambulance Service paramedics declared Chopra dead on the scene.

21 year old Indian student, Kunal Kapoor, from Punjab dies in Australia car crash

Indian-origin driver charged for killing 4 Sikh men in Australia crash

Indian-origin driver charged for killing 4 Sikh men in Australia crash
Harinder Singh Randhawa, who is recuperating in the hospital under police custody, was driving a Peugeot with four passengers inside when it collided with a Toyota Hilux ute at an intersection at Pine Lodge, near Shepparton earlier this month, the SBS Punjabi channel reported. Randhawa will be appearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on June 8.

Indian-origin driver charged for killing 4 Sikh men in Australia crash