Date:14/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/14/stories/2009011460691100.htm

National

Suspected Lashkar activist held

Staff Reporter

KOLKATA: A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba activist was arrested by West Bengal’s Criminal Investigation Department from Malda district late on Monday.

Safique Iliyas “Deepak,” a resident of Rajshahi in Bangladesh, was instructed by his colleagues to spy on the movement of Army personnel in Siliguri, CID officials said.

“Safique crossed over to India on January 3 and was sheltered in the house of Haji Akhtar Hussein at Harishchandrapur in Malda district. We arrested both on a tip-off,” Siddh Nath Gupta, Deputy Inspector-General (Operation) of CID, said here on Tuesday.

Mr. Gupta said Safique planned to set up a shop near the Army establishment in Siliguri execute his job.

This is not the first time that Safique is arrested. The Delhi Police arrested him in 1998 on the charge of transporting RDX from Bangladesh to Uttar Pradesh during 1997-98. He was lodged in the Tihar jail till 2003, before being granted bail and fleeing to Bangladesh.

“Safique has admitted that he helped two Lashkar-e-Taiba men to cross over to India via the international border in the State last year. One of them, Sikandar-e-Azaam, was later arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in June,” Mr. Gupta said.

Safique was produced before the Magis0trate’s Court at Jangipur in Murshidabad district and the court remanded him to 14-days police custody.