A team of National Investigating Agency (NIA) from Kolkata on Wednesday took into custody a suspected lashkar-e-Taiba (leT) terrorist from his rented house on the outskirts of Cuttack city.
The six-member team in an early morning swoop raided the location, where Akhtar Hussain Khan was staying, and took him under custody after quizzing him separately away from family members for about an hour.
While the NIA sleuths gathered some incriminating documents from his house at Kishor Nagar near here, his cell phone having some dubious numbers saved against suspicious names was also seized.
“They have taken my father for further questioning to an undisclosed location,” said Akhtar’s son Asfaq, claiming that he has no knowledge about his father having any links with terrorist organisations.
Odisha DGP RP Sharma said, “An NIA team from Kolkata arrived here this morning and, after raiding a location on the outskirts of the city, has taken one person into custody.” He added that the team might have certain intelligent inputs with them, on the basis of which they have acted.
Sharma, however, refused to divulge anything further while the NIA team was completely tightlipped about its operation.
According to reports, the NIA sleuths, after arresting a leT terrorist in New Delhi, had gathered reports about Akhtar and his links with the largest and the most active militant organisation operating mainly from Pakistan. Akhtar, a native of nearby Salepur block of Cuttack district, reportedly was staying in Dubai and South Arabia for over 12 years. He had come back to Odisha four years back.
It may be mentioned that a police team from New Delhi had also arrested one Abdul Rehman, a suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist, from near Cuttack in December 2015. It was later revealed that Rehman, who was running an illegal madrasa at his village, was responsible for radicalising young Muslims and training them for terrorist activities.