The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh police busted a module of Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and arrested three people for their alleged links with ISI following raids in four districts of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, officials said. Those arrested were planning a major terror attack in the state, police officials claimed.
Confirming the development, additional director general (law and order), UP, Prashant Kumar said, “We have busted an ISI-sponsored module and arrested three of its members. The arrests were made after raids in four districts of UP, including Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj. A live improvised explosive device (IED) was also recovered in Prayagraj which was defused with the help of the bomb squad. Further questioning and investigation in the matter is under way.”
Those arrested were identified as Mohammed Amir Javed, 31, of Bakshi Ka Talab (BKT) area of Lucknow, Zeeshan Qamar, 28, of Kareli in Prayagraj and Lala alias Moolchand Srivastav of Unchahar in Rae Bareli. The accused were arrested with support from local police.
According to police officials, Zeeshan visited Pakistan via Muscat in April this year. He was trained at a farmhouse of Thatta area of Pakistan in use of weapon and making IEDs by trainers of the Pakistani Army. The training was of 15 days after which Zeeshan returned to Muscat and came back to India.
The ATS officials reached Wasiabad locality of Prayagraj on Tuesday morning where they questioned the Imam of a local mosque . Other teams carried out raids at other places in Kareli area from where they arrested Zeeshan Qamar. Another team reached Dandi in Naini area in the evening. Vicinity of a house was cordoned off and barricading was installed before a search operation was launched there. Locals were not allowed entry to the area till late in the evening.
{{/usCountry}}The ATS officials reached Wasiabad locality of Prayagraj on Tuesday morning where they questioned the Imam of a local mosque . Other teams carried out raids at other places in Kareli area from where they arrested Zeeshan Qamar. Another team reached Dandi in Naini area in the evening. Vicinity of a house was cordoned off and barricading was installed before a search operation was launched there. Locals were not allowed entry to the area till late in the evening.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile kin of the one arrested from Kareli area denied having any knowledge about the reasons for his detention. Kin of Zeeshan claimed that he was in a travel business and had recently started an online date business.
In a similar action, ATS in July this year had arrested one Meenhaz Ahmed, 32, resident of Zehta Barawan Kala on the Dubagga bypass road under Kakori police station limits and Maseerudeen alias Musheer, 50, of Mohbillapur locality on Sitapur Road under Madiaon police limits in Lucknow. They were accused of being members of local module prepared under Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) organisation.
ATS officials said the arrested ones’ handler was one Umar Halmandi, a known Al-Qaeda operative who runs terror activities from his hideout on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. UP ATS had then seized two semi-prepared IED-based pressure cooker bombs and explosive materials, as well as a pistol, during a search at a house-cum-workshop in Lucknow.