Raid On Mason Lodge: They Were To Be Burnt

The two terrorists who raided a Mason meeting Tuesday, were found out to have planned, to burn the people at the meeting, with four barrels of gasoline which they brought along with them.When the terrorist who was to fire the molotov cocktail got injured, their plan did not materialize. Only 4 of the 14 bombs found on the terrorist who was killed in site, had exploded, and that prevented a disaster.There was no ID card on the two terrorists, who were about 30 year's old. Their finger prints however, showed that they had no criminal records in Turkey. On the probability that they might be foreign nationals, these print were forwarded to Interpol. Whether they belong to an international organization, is investigated.A caller told journalists that Al-Qaeda and IBDA-C had organized the raid , threatening that raids on Masons will continue. However Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said that the raid appeared to be the job of a fundamentalist organization but did not appear to be the job of Al-Qaeda. The terrorists killed waiter Huseyin  Kurugol , by shooting him on his back.  There were 35-40 people in the meeting, during the raid.Police traced Afghan national Abdullah Islam who lives in Istanbul and is carrying out research on the identity of the aggressors. Istanbul Governor Muammer Guller described the attack as "Failing" and asked from the press not to disclose its information about the raid, for 48 hours. The Mason Lodge condemned the raid, qualifying as "An attack on peace in Turkey." The statement said that all Masons were Kemalist, religious and peaceful people.Researcher Aytunc Altindal said at a Channel 7 TV interview yesterday that he believed that Tuesday's raids were individual cases, rather than organizational.Â