The Hindu : National : LeT activist held in Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 06, 2004

National

National

LeT activist held in Delhi

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5. A member of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit has been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police for allegedly trying to set up a militant base here. The police have recovered arms, ammunitions and cash from him.

Following a tip-off by intelligence agencies, a special cell team caught the suspect, Irshad Ahmed Malik oda in Jammu and Kashmir, outside a guesthouse at Bhogal here on March 27. A revolver of foreign make along with eight live cartridges and Rs. 2.75 lakhs in cash were recovered from him.

Thirtyeight-year-old Irshad was also found carrying two identity cards in the name of Bashir Ahmed Wani and Tahir Nazir Mir. "These are fake business identity cards which they carry to dodge the police," said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Ashok Chand.

The accused was produced in court and remanded to police custody for 10 days.

He reportedly told the police that he had dumped a consignment of arms and ammunition into the riverbed at Jammu. A team was sent there to make the recovery but could not find anything. Later, however, he said, that on instructions from his Pakistan counterpart, Mujamil, he had smuggled one AK-56 rifle and 60 live rounds into Delhi. The consignment was supposed to be given to another Lashkar militant here but the man could not be contacted. Later he dumped it in on an abandoned stretch behind Humayun's Tomb here. Police recovered it on April 1.

Irshadtold the police that he joined LeT after he came into contact with its Pakistan-based district commander for Doda in 1998.

In September 1998 he and an accomplice, Mohammad Hafiz, lobbed a grenade on a candidate contesting the J&K Assembly elections in Doda. Irshad was later arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act for two years. But in 1999 he, along with a Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant, Zahoor Ahmed, escaped from police custody when they were being brought back to Jammu jail after a court hearing in Doda.

The police have registered a case under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National