Delhi arrest turns lens on Bihar terror links again

The arrest of Pakistani national Mohammad Ashraf alias Ali, who was nabbed from Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, has again turned the spotlight on Bihar after it was found that he managed to get an Indian identity through a village in the state’s eastern region.

The arrest of Pakistani national Mohammad Ashraf alias Ali, who was nabbed from Laxmi Nagar in New Delhi by the Delhi Police, has again turned the spotlight on Bihar after it was found that he managed to get an Indian identity through a village in the state’s eastern region.

Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Mohammad Ashraf , a Pakistani national from Laxmi Nagar in New Delhi Tuesday. (ANI)

Deputy commissioner of police (special cell of Delhi Police) Pramod Kushwaha said on Tuesday that Ali is learnt to have managed his Indian identity proof through a sarpanch (village arbitrator) from a district in Bihar, which was shown as his permanent address on passport.

“He established his Indian identity from a village in Bihar after his marriage. Later, he made ID cards on other addresses and on the basis of those documents, he got his passport made in 2014. He has a permanent address of Bihar and has different addresses on other IDs,” said another officer of Delhi Police.

Sources in Bihar government said he managed to get a residential certificate with the help of sarpanch but refused to divulge the name of the district.

Additional director general of Bihar Police (headquarters), Jitendra Singh Gangwar, said the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) was in touch with its Delhi counterparts. “If Delhi Police team comes to Bihar, we will extend all cooperation. So far, there is no official contact in this regard,” he said.

Notorious past

Terror links being traced to Bihar is not new, be it Dubai-based terrorist Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Mallik, whose passport was made at a Nalanda address or LTTE chief Prabhakaran, whose driving licence was traced to Dhanbad in early 1990s when the coal town was part of undivided Bihar.

In the past, several terror suspects have been picked up from Madhubani, Darbhanga, Samastipur and Purnea districts. Intelligence agencies had claimed to have stumbled upon incriminating evidence in Darbhanga in the aftermath of blasts at the 2014 rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Patna.

In 2014, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) nabbed Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his aide Asadullah from the Indo-Nepal border. Bhatkal used to work in Bihar in the guise of an Ayurvedic physician, identifying himself as “Dr Imran”.

In 2009, a Nepal-based Lashkar operative, Mohammad Omar Madni, who hailed from Madhubani, was arrested by a Delhi Police team.

In 2006, Kamaluddin and Khalid Sheikh were arrested from Madhubani’s Basobpatti area in connection with Mumbai train blasts.

Bihar’s revenue and land reforms minister Ram Surat Kumar, who is from BJP, had earlier alleged that infiltration in Seemanchal districts has been happening with cooperation from the locals, who help them buy land, build houses and start their businesses on the basis of fake documents.