BOMBAY, 23 July 2005 — A local Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court in Bombay, became the first Indian court to send to jail the first Indian Muslim on charges of terrorism.

The man was jailed for plotting to crash passenger jets into the House of Commons and the Tower Bridge in London on Sept. 11, 2001.

The court handed down a seven-year prison term to Mohammed Afroze, who had also confessed to plotting with a group of Al-Qaeda operatives to attack Melborne’s Rialto Towers and the Indian Parliament in 2001.

Afroze told the police in Bombay after fleeing from Britain to India four years ago that he and seven Al-Qaeda terror cell operatives planned to hijack the passenger jets at Heathrow and fly them into the two London landmarks.

The suicide squads which included men from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan booked themselves on two Manchester-bound flights but the group panicked and fled just before they were due to board.