A U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks discusses a plot by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LeT) to assassinate Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, soon after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that resulted in 166 dead, including six Americans.
Modi, who belongs to the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), has been reported to have allowed Hindu rioters to murder several hundreds of Muslims during the Gujarat riots in February 2002. The riots followed the deaths of dozens of Hindu extremist political activists after an angry Muslim mob set a train carrying the activists on fire. Nearly 800 Muslims and over 250 Hindus were reported to have perished in the ensuing violence. The plot to kill Modi was in "revenge" of the deaths of several hundred Muslims in the riots.
The cable further claimed Lashkar planned to set up bases in the Indian states of Kerala, Karantaka, and Tamil Nadu and also in neighboring Sri Lanka to plot attacks in India.
The plot to kill Modi was conceived by Pakistan-based LeT leader Shafiq Khalfa who tasked Indian operative Sameer Hussein with carrying out the attack. Khafa communicated with Hussein about plans to set up LeT training camps in India and kill Modi in an operation "involving a car," the cable said.
BJP leader Balbir Punj has accused the U.S. of "inaction on the issue," and said it should have informed Indian authorities of the plot.