Hafiz's top LeT aide asked to recruit youth from India

Mohd Omar Madni, a top aide of Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed, who was arrested in the Capital yesterday, had been asked by its leaders to recruit young people from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata for training in Pakistan. Home Minister P Chidambaram has confirmed Madni's link with Hafiz Saeed.

Mohd Omar Madni, a top aide of Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed, who was arrested in the capital yesterday, had been asked by leaders of the terror outfit to recruit young people from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata for training in Pakistan.

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Madni, who too visited Pakistan for training to carryout terror attacks, is a Nepalese citizen and was a key operator for LeT there, Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P N Aggarwal told reporters here today.

A Special Cell team arrested 50-year-old Madni from Qutub Minar area when he arrived to hand-over money to a contact for recruiting people for terror activities.

The police claimed that Madni was working on “talent spotting for terrorist activities, sending then for training in Lashkar camps in Pakistan and launching them in India.”

Besides Hafiz, Madni was also in touch with other LeT key functionaries Zaki-ur-Rehman and Mohd Yakub who asked him to recruit two educated youngsters each from the four main metros for terror training.

Aggarwal said Madni was also asked to select people from coastal areas who were good sailors and were interested in shipping, young men who have worked in fireworks factory to be trained in IED manufacturing and a person in Jammu to carry money to Srinagar.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said Madni “does have” links with Saeed. “It (the arrest) is a measure of the good intelligence and good investigative work done by our intelligence agencies and police.”

Meanwhile, Madni has been produced in a Delhi court.