State ATS arrests LeT terrorist from airport

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested an alleged wanted Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) terrorist, Salim Mohammad Khan.

He was passing instructions and funds to Aftab, an agent of Pakistan’s spy agency the ISI while holed up in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Aftab, who was arrested from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh recently, had named Khan as a culprit. Khan was deported to India from UAE and was picked up from the international terminal of Mumbai airport early on Monday morning.

The UP ATS had been hunting for Khan — a native of the northern state’s Fatehpur district — since 2008 in connection with the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) group centre at Rampur, officials said. At least seven jawans were killed in the attack, which was conducted by terrorists who wore clothes resembling the CRPF uniform. After they succeeded in breaching the security cover, they fired indiscriminately on the jawans.

“Two terrorists who were arrested in the attack had revealed that Khan had taken terror training along with them at a camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Muzaffarabad in 2007. A lookout notice was also issued against him subsequently, which was also active at the time of his arrest,” stated a release by the UP ATS.

The Maharashtra ATS who nabbed Khan stated that the Juhu ATS unit swung into action and started making inquiries with Khan on a strong suspicion about his involvement in the terror attack in UP and various other anti-national activities.

The state ATS got in touch with their counterparts in UP after it identified Khan’s antecedents. The UP ATS later took khan into its custody. The UP police has registered a case against Khan under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act, Explosives Act and the Foreigner Registration Act.