New Delhi: Investigations into the arrest of a top Indian Mujahideen militant Abdul Subhan Qureshi have revealed that he had made several trips to Nepal during which he met senior operatives of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). These ISI officers, intelligence sources said, directed Qureshi to revive IM operations in India and target important cities.
For his stay in Nepal, Qureshi had also forged some documents. It is suspected that these meetings between Qureshi and ISI officials were facilitated by some staff members of the Pakistan embassy in Kathmandu and their role was being investigated.
Qureshi was arrested by Delhi police’s Special Cell, with assistance from intelligence agencies on Monday while he was in the process of reviving the terror outfit by recruiting more operatives. The ISI, sources claimed, assured “all possible help to Qureshi including financial resources’’ to carryout subversive activities within the country.
Activities of IM, which was responsible for series of explosions, across the country in 2006-07 but its activities were severely hampered following the Batla House encounter in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area in 2008 in which virtually its entire top leadership was eliminated.
Senior intelligence officials claimed Qureshi’s arrest has confirmed what they were suspecting till now that ISI had been making desperate attempts to revive IM, which mainly comprised of local youth, for terror operations in the country.
“The arrest has also confirms that ISI continues to use Kathmandu and some other areas in Nepal as their base to rope in terror operatives to target India. Though there is increased co-operation between India and Nepal on sharing intelligence on terrorism and organised crime the ISI remains active in some parts of the neighbouring country,’’ a senior intelligence official said.
Efforts are being made to get more details from Qureshi to ascertain the identity of ISI and other Pak embassy officials in Kathmandu whom he had met during the visits. A joint team of Special Cell and senior intelligence officials is subjecting Qureshi to custodial interrogation to get more details on his future terror plans. Qureshi is one of the founders of IM and the mastermind of 2008 serial blasts in Gujarat. Qureshi is said to be expert in assembling Improvised Explosive Devices.
